Search

One of the difficulties in teaching Turkish, which is a phonetically rich language, to foreigners, is that similar sounds are often confused with each other. Since even a single punctuation mark is crucial for writing and reading Turkish letters (i-i, o-ö, u-ü, c-ç, g-g, s-s, etc.), students who use the Arabic alphabet have great difficulty writing and pronouncing Turkish words correctly. The difficulties that foreigners have in spelling vowels (i-i, o-ö, u-ü) and consonants (c-ç, g-g, m-n, s-s) when learning Turkish also have a negative impact on their writing and speaking skills. Especially in essay writing classes, students often misspell words, which makes it necessary to determine and implement more effective strategies in alphabet lessons. When teaching the Turkish alphabet, it is of great importance that the teacher uses "onomatopoeia," which is considered an important feature of Turkish, to overcome this problem. In this study, the effect of onomatopoeia, the word corresponding to sounds in nature, on writing skills in Turkish classes for foreigners was investigated. This study, taken from a class of nine students at the Afyon Kocatepe University Turkish Language Teaching Centre at A1 level in the semesters of 2013-2014, was based on the analysis of three essays written by the students before and after studying onomatopoeia. The analysis of the data revealed that teaching the alphabet with onomatopoeic words was effective for the students in terms of the letters whose spellings were confused with each other and made a significant contribution to the writing skills of foreigners.

The Khotons, in the west of Mongolia, were originally Turkic people who spoke the Khoton language, until the 19th century, which is currently considered extinct. This study aimed to prove that the Khoton language belonged to the Turkic languages; and to standardize the Swadesh inventory in relation to the Khoton words. The Swadesh inventory of words was the primary source of this research, which was sampled to examine the basic characteristics like semantic (meaning) acoustic (sound-based), pronunciation and spellings. This study adopted a comparative-historical research design with a qualitative approach, which involved an in-depth content analysis of the data. A data classification process was used to analyze the data by dividing them into categories (3-tiers) to enable retrieving, sorting and storing information. The Swadesh list of words also acted as the instrument of the study as this list was used to target the Khoton vocabulary and determine their equivalence. Such a data classification also helped to manipulate, track and analyze individual specimens in data. The findings of the study reveal that a majority of the linguistic combinations (lexemes) sampled for this study were found in the Khoton language, fully corresponding to the meaning of the English words in the Swadesh list. It was also evident that the basic vocabulary of the Khoton language had the elements of a Turkic language; and that there was an opportunity to reproduce the Khoton language. It is recommended that future studies should examine other versions of Swadesh inventory and compare them with the words in Turkic languages.

This article explores primary school teachers' views and practices in literacy instruction to support students' word knowledge development. This study provides insights into how primary school teachers with a deep interest in literacy understand and apply the literacy strategies they employ in their classrooms, and how previous professional development has influenced and contributes to their practice. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with six expert teachers, as well as classroom observations, the results highlight rich metalinguistic learning journeys. Themes generated from the data include: use of a range of tools and strategies to support students' linguistic understanding brought about by impactful professional development experiences; use of a range of assessment techniques to drive instruction; and a supportive mentoring culture for teachers' development of word knowledge. The findings suggest that experienced teachers recognise that English language learning can be a complex process, especially when it comes to the written form. Therefore, it was evident that the interrelationship of phonology, orthography, morphology and etymology played a crucial role in teaching for understanding of the language and its structure. This article highlights the importance of four linguistic elements and their role on learning English in the primary classroom, particularly in the context of spelling, writing and reading development.

The proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted scholarly publishing. This study explores the use of AI tools by Arab researchers who publish in English. A survey was conducted to gather information on AI tool adoption in research conception, writing, editing, and publishing. It collected responses from 84 participants, who provided insights into their usage patterns, challenges encountered, and ethical considerations when using AI. The findings reveal diverse adoption rates of AI tools, with high usage for language correctness and content enhancement such as grammar and spelling checking. The ethical implications of AI tool usage, including the need to ensure data quality, prevent plagiarism, and maintain ethical standards, were emphasized by respondents. Tools such as Grammarly, Endnote, and QuillBot were recognized for their utility in addressing common challenges. However, certain research-related tasks, notably research design, exhibited lower AI tool integration. The study underscores the gap between awareness and adoption of AI tools, indicating potential barriers to their utilization. Challenges such as cost, integration issues, and concerns about the accuracy and appropriateness of AI-generated content were identified. These findings offer insights for researchers, institutions, and publishers to enhance editorial processes, promote ethical AI tool usage, and bridge the gap between awareness and adoption.

The study examined the types of language errors made by learners in the English narrative essays. It also assessed the feedback techniques employed by teachers of English in the handling of language errors in the English narrative essays. A descriptive research design was employed to examine errors of English narrative essays of 181 form two learners obtained through stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques. The eight teachers of English selected through purposive and simple random sampling completed interview schedules. Qualitative data generated from the essays of the learners was analyzed using Error Analysis and Content Analysis. The findings reveal that a total of seven categories of language errors which include: word order, verb tense and form, subject -- verb agreement, spelling, plurality, word choice, and capital letter errors were made by the learners in their English narrative essays. The most preferred corrective technique was to involve the learners actively by encouraging them to read extensively and write severally on various narratives in the target language. The findings will provide reliable feedback to teachers of English because it will guide on the development of teaching methods and evaluative measures to narrative essays. The study will also be useful to curriculum developers in designing materials for teaching English language in secondary schools. It will also be of invaluable benefit to learners of English as it will guide on the way narrative essays need to be written.

The study aimed to identify the primary obstacles encountered by junior high school students when learning English. Conducted as a cross-sectional survey, data were gathered from 102 9th-grade students in three public schools in Parongpong using a Likert questionnaire and analyzed through mean scores. Findings revealed that the key barriers included students' tendency to use their native language, grammar errors, limited speaking opportunities outside school, fear of making mistakes, and restricted vocabulary. Additionally, challenges arose from listening materials' speed and complexity, unfamiliar topics and words, as well as nervousness. Furthermore, hurdles in reading practice, complex text structures, idea generation, spelling, paragraph organization, grammar, teacher's limited use of learning media, and cognitive attitudes were observed. These findings are expected to aid teaching efforts, particularly in addressing barriers for EFL learners.

Studying towards a postgraduate qualification is viewed as a booster that may usher employees towards management positions. We have found common mistakes in research proposals for master's degree students in a department at the University of Namibia. Our presentation shows the shortcomings in the research proposals of postgraduate students and proposes interventions to address the challenges. We collected qualitative data through the observations of nine (9) Master of Education research proposals, which were conveniently selected. Our analysis showed shortcomings in research proposals submitted to the Department of Education at the University of Namibia. Moreover, there is a need for the introduction of a writing unit at the university to supply writing services such as academic writing, proof reading and editing. We recommend that regular practical training is offered on effective academic writing to postgraduate students. We also show the need for postgraduate students to be oriented towards the plagiarism policy and referencing style of the university. This calls for the re-thinking of ways that enable effective postgraduate student supervision, which may address the quality of student research output.

Motivational research identifies utility value, or the importance of a learning task to future goals, as central to motivation to learn. This study analyzed survey data (N = 86) collected from adult literacy learners to examine their utility value of writing improvement in grammar and spelling skills, word processing skills, and planning, drafting, and revising skills. Findings revealed that participants had a high utility value of improving writing in all three skill areas and possessed a variety of underlying motivations, including obtaining further education, seeking future employment, and personal reasons. Participants' age, educational attainment, and reading levels showed relationships with utility value of improving grammar and spelling skills, and age showed an additional relationship to utility value of improving word processing skills. This work extends research on motivation in this population and supports the application of expectancy-value theory to both adult motivation and writing motivation.

This paper examines the effects of a morphological awareness intervention on the word reading and spelling skills of Grades 4 to 6 children with dyslexia. Sixteen children in eastern Ontario, Canada, received 20 hours of morphologically oriented instruction spread over 6 weeks and eight served as controls, and all received a battery of reading and spelling tests before and after the intervention. Students were taught the nature of morphology and the types of morphemes, how words could be assembled from morphemes or deconstructed into morphemes to make meaning from print and access the correct pronunciation, and how to use morphology in reading and spelling words. Repeated measures analyses of variance and analyses of covariance indicated that the experimental group showed significantly larger gains than the control group on measures of morphological awareness, morphological decoding, morphological analysis, and morphological spelling. There were no significant effects on word reading (fluency and accuracy) or on standardized spelling measures.

We investigated the stability and developmental interplay of word reading and spelling in samples of Swedish (N = 191) and U.S. children (N = 489) followed across four time points: end of kindergarten, grades 1, 2, and 4. Cross-lagged path models revealed that reading and spelling showed moderate to strong autoregressive effects, with reading being more predictable over time than spelling. Regarding the developmental interplay, we found a bidirectional relationship between reading and spelling from kindergarten to Grade 1. However, starting in Grade 1, reading predicted subsequent spelling beyond the autoregressor but not the other way around. In all analyses, the findings were similar across the two orthographies. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Background: Upper elementary grade students encounter increasingly complex texts with abundant morphologically complex words. Despite the positive effects of morphology-based vocabulary instruction, emergent bilinguals with limited word reading skills may need additional support. Methods: This study investigated the effects of morphological analysis and morphophonemic analysis instruction on the orthographic and semantic learning of morphologically complex academic words. Fourth- and fifth-grade Spanish-English bilingual students (N = 30) in the United States participated in two learning tasks. In learning task one, participants learned two sets of carefully matched derivational words under morphological and whole-word learning conditions. In learning task two, the same participants learned two other sets of words under morphophonemic and whole-word learning conditions. Each learning task included two learning sessions interweaved by meaning recall and spelling production assessments. Cross-classified multilevel regression was used to assess the effects of intervention conditions, child and item predictors, as well as cross-level interactions. Results: Findings showed no significant difference in meaning recall and spelling measures between morphological and whole-word conditions. Students performed significantly better in the morphophonemic condition than in the whole-word condition for both meaning and affix spelling outcomes. The effect of morphophonemic intervention over whole word condition was stronger for younger students and words of lower base frequencies. Student meaning and spelling performance was significantly predicted by their word reading skills. Conclusions: Morphophonemic analysis instruction enhances word meaning recall and spelling of complex derivative words.

Background: Accumulating evidence shows that the home literacy environment (HLE) has a potent and early influence on children's language and literacy development. However, there is a more limited understanding of HLE and its contribution to children's outcomes for simultaneous bilingual children exposed to two languages at home, particularly in the Asian context. Methods: In this study with 801 six-year-old bilingual learners, HLE and language and literacy outcomes were examined in two languages. Children were assessed in their receptive vocabulary, reading and spelling abilities for English plus their ethnic Asian language (Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil) for a subsample of 374 children. Results: Results from factor analyses suggest that HLE for each language within families had a different latent structure, with three to four factors for English ("parent involvement," "parent habit," "child exploration" and "shared reading") and three factors for the Asian language ("parent involvement," "parent habit" and "child interest"). Further path analyses show that shared reading had a negative contribution to English outcomes but a positive influence on Asian language outcomes. Conclusions: Findings extend existing understanding of HLE structure for bilingual language learners from bilingual families. HLE components contributed differently to bilingual language outcomes, with positive contributions of child exploration to English outcomes and of parent habits including shared reading to Asian language outcomes. Negative relationships for shared reading to English outcomes are also evident and suggest that further research on the long-term effects of HLE is needed.

Background: Spelling acquisition requires the assimilation of the regularities of the writing system, but these regularities may differ between the native and a foreign language. English spelling acquisition is a challenge for Spanish-speaking children due to differences in the orthographic systems. The aim of this study was to examine to what extent Spanish-speaking children use sub-lexical and lexical information when spelling in English as a foreign language (EFL), and whether this varies across grades. Methods: To achieve this, we administered a spelling-to-dictation task of monosyllabic words to children 9 to 11 years old. Spelling accuracy, written latencies, and writing durations were analysed as a function of phonology-to-orthography consistency, lexical frequency, word length, and the semantic knowledge that the children have of the words. Results: Results showed differences between grades, with word length only influencing younger children. Lexical frequency, consistency, and semantic knowledge facilitated performance in older children. The cumulative exposure to English may lead to an improvement in spelling due to vocabulary growth and increased sensitivity to new spelling patterns and regularities. Such development occurs despite differences between the orthographies of the native and foreign language and even in the absence of explicit instruction in EFL spelling. Conclusions: Semantic information about words helps spelling retrieval during writing in EFL. Spanish-speaking children develop sensitivity to English orthography and spelling patterns, evident in the older group of children.

In this pre-registered meta-analysis, we investigated the effectiveness of morphology instruction on literacy outcomes for primary school children in English-speaking countries. We were interested in overall reading and spelling outcomes, but we also looked separately at results for trained and untrained words in order to determine whether there was evidence of transfer to untrained words. Further, we were interested in whether results transferred beyond the word level to reading comprehension outcomes. Our screening process revealed 28 eligible studies, which contributed 177 effect sizes to the analyses. Robust variance estimation methods were used to account for dependence between effect sizes. Overall, effect sizes on reading and spelling outcomes were small to moderate. Effect sizes were larger for trained words than untrained words. There was evidence of transfer to untrained words for spelling outcomes, but not for reading outcomes. There was also no clear evidence of effects on reading comprehension outcomes. In general, the evidence was characterised by large amounts of heterogeneity and imprecision, which was reflective of the wide variety within and between studies in terms of intervention content, outcome measures, intervention dosage and type of control group. We discuss the limitations of the current literature and make recommendations for future research and practice in the field of morphology instruction.

Autistic people who cannot speak risk being underestimated. Their inability to speak, along with other unconventional behaviors and mannerisms, can give rise to limiting assumptions about their capacities, including their capacity to acquire literacy. In this preregistered study, we developed a task to investigate whether autistic adolescents and adults with limited or no phrase speech (N = 31) have learned English orthographic conventions. Participants played a game that involved tapping sequentially pulsing targets on an iPad as quickly as they could. Three patterns in their response times suggest they know how to spell: (a) They were faster to tap letters of the alphabet that pulsed in sequences that spelled sentences than letters or nonsense symbols that pulsed in closely matched but meaningless sequences; (b) they responded more quickly to pairs of letters in meaningful sequences the more often the letters co-occur in English; and (c) they spontaneously paused before tapping the first pulsing letter of a new word. These findings suggest that nonspeaking autistic people can acquire foundational literacy skills. With appropriate instruction and support, it might be possible to harness these skills to provide nonspeaking autistic people access to written forms of communication as an alternative to speech.

We address defining and identifying students with dyslexia within the context of multi-tier systems of support (MTSS). We review proposed definitions of dyslexia, evidence for proposed definitional attributes, and emphasize the role of instructional response in identifying students with dyslexia. We identify dyslexia as individuals with specific deficits in reading and spelling single words combined with inadequate response to evidence-based instruction. We propose a hybrid identification process in which assessment is utilized within school-wide MTSS allowing for integration of routinely collected progress monitoring data as well integrating with more formal diagnostic measures. This proposed "hybrid" method demonstrates strong evidence for valid decision-making and directly informs instruction. We close proposing a revised definition of dyslexia that incorporates these elements.

The International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was updated 20 years ago and has been referenced frequently in research and practice. In this paper, researchers from the Florida Center for Reading Research consider the components of the definition and make recommendations for revisions. These include recognizing the persistence of word-reading, decoding, and spelling difficulties, acknowledging the multifactorial causal basis of dyslexia, clarifying exclusionary factors, and denoting comorbidity with other developmental disorders. It is also suggested that the academic and psychosocial consequences of dyslexia be highlighted to reinforce a preventive service delivery model. Lastly, the inclusion of dyslexia within a specific learning disability category is supported.

This cross-lagged study examined the classroom-level associations between the reading performance of first-grade students (N = 537) and observed literacy instruction activities in classrooms (N = 30) in the autumn and spring terms. The multilevel analyses indicated that lower average word reading skills in the classrooms (i.e., there were more students who were learning to read) in the autumn were associated with higher amount of activities supporting consolidation of reading and spelling skills in the spring. In contrast, higher average word reading skills in the classrooms in the autumn were associated with higher amount of independent meaning-focused activities in the spring. Higher extent of whole-group meaning-focused activities in the autumn was positively associated with reading comprehension at classroom level in the spring, whereas independent phonological recoding practice in the autumn was negatively associated with reading comprehension in the spring. The study provides novel understanding of the associations between students' reading performance and literacy instruction especially showing how students' reading skills at classroom level may inform instruction in the classroom. This information may guide teachers to adapt their instruction at classroom level but also to identify the students needing differentiation. The results also acknowledge the affordances and limitations students' skills may set for the instruction.

Literacy skills are important for children's development. The present study explored the effectiveness of a parent coaching approach on the reading and spelling skills and compared cognitive-linguistic skills performances between Chinese children with and without dyslexia. Participants were 33 children with dyslexia and 77 children without dyslexia, as well as their parent, in Hong Kong. Children were divided into three groups: dyslexia with training, non-dyslexia with training, and non-dyslexia without training. Parents in both training groups were instructed to facilitate children's literacy skills. A series of cognitive-linguistic skills were tested on children at pretest. Children received measures of character reading, word reading, and word spelling before and after the parent coaching. Results showed that, compared to children without dyslexia, children with dyslexia performed significantly more poorly on all cognitive-linguistic skills. Analyses of the training effect demonstrated that the dyslexia with training group significantly improved their performances on word reading and word spelling following the intervention. In addition, those without dyslexia who experienced training performed significantly better on character reading and word spelling at posttest than pretest. These results suggest that parent coaching can be one potentially effective method of promoting literacy skills among children both with and without dyslexia.

Purpose: According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), prevention, identification, assessment, and intervention of children who are learning to read and write are within the scope of practice for school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Furthermore, for SLPs who work in the school setting, it is not uncommon to have struggling readers and poor spellers on their caseloads. Importantly, for students who have difficulty in spelling, their spelling errors are among the early indicators of dyslexia and can provide a means for identifying readers who may benefit from early intervention. SLPs can both assess spelling skills and implement evidence-based spelling and literacy diagnosis and instruction. Spelling instruction in kindergarten through the high school grades that is heavily grounded in metalinguistic activities can provide access to mental representations of word spellings, pronunciations, and meanings; links between whole-word and phonics approaches to reading instruction; and a foundation for reading fluency and comprehension. Conclusions: Learning to spell is essential for learning to read. Accordingly, this tutorial aims to elucidate how to (a) assess and identify phases of spelling development and (b) teach spelling to facilitate reading through a listening-first approach.

Visual-verbal paired-associate learning (PAL) is thought to be related to reading acquisition and, more specifically, to word reading skills. To date, the uniqueness and strength of this relationship has remained unclear because most studies have been conducted in opaque orthographies such as English, and few studies have controlled for all of the strongest cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading acquisition. Critically, PAL is a complex task involving different components, and there is still no consensus on which is more involved, crossmodal associative learning or verbal learning, although the latter has received much support in the literature. The first aim of this study was to test the unique contribution of PAL in French, which has an intermediate level of orthographic transparency compared to other languages. The second aim of this study was to disentangle the mechanisms that account for this relationship. A battery of reading and reading-related tests as well as a visual-verbal PAL task were administered to 227 French children in first and second grade. The results showed that PAL makes a unique contribution to word reading in French, but not to nonword reading scores, over and above the strongest language predictors of reading: phonological awareness, rapid automatic naming, short-term phonological memory, vocabulary, and age. Our data do not support the putative involvement of the crossmodal associative learning mechanism. We therefore suggest that verbal learning explains the entire contribution of PAL.

This study examined the cognitive-linguistic and literacy-related correlates of dyslexia in three Chinese cities and the English word reading and mathematics performances of Chinese children with dyslexia. Chinese children with/without dyslexia were measured with an equivalent test battery of literacy and mathematics in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Univariate analysis results suggested that phonological sensitivity distinguished those with and without dyslexia across all three cities in group comparisons. In Taipei and Hong Kong, morphological awareness, delayed copying, and spelling also distinguished the groups. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that Chinese character reading, as directly compared to Chinese word reading, also distinguished the groups particularly well. In addition, in Beijing and Hong Kong, children with dyslexia performed significantly less well in English word reading than those without dyslexia. In Hong Kong and Taipei, children with dyslexia also had difficulties in mathematics performance. Findings highlight the fundamental importance of some cognitive-linguistic skills for explaining Chinese dyslexia across cultures, the utility of recognizing the individual Chinese character as a foundational unit of analysis in Chinese across cultures, and the generalizability of the comorbidity of both English as a second language (L2) and mathematics with dyslexia in Chinese children in both Beijing and Hong Kong.

Due to pandemic-induced lockdown(s) in 2020, dyslexia treatment was forced to move to online platforms. This study examined whether Dutch children who received online treatment progressed as much in their reading and spelling performance as children who received the usual face-to-face treatment. To this end, 254 children who received treatment-as-usual were compared to 162 children who received online treatment with Bayesian methods. The advantage of a Bayesian approach is that it can provide evidence for and against the null hypothesis whereas frequentist approaches only provide evidence against it. We found that children in the online treatment condition received slightly fewer treatment sessions but progressed equally after controlling for the number of sessions compared to the treatment-as-usual condition. These results have clinical and practical implications as they show that reading treatment can be successfully delivered online.

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the development of spelling in a large sample (N = 503, boys: N = 219) of Greek-speaking children with (N = 41) and without (N = 462) reading difficulties. Children were initially tested in Grades 2-4 and then at five consecutive measurement points over a 3-year period, focusing on how initial reading ability, grade, and gender may moderate the rate of spelling growth. Individual growth curve modeling revealed continuous growth of spelling performance in the total sample, although the growth rate decreased over time for children first tested in Grades 3-4. Spelling growth rate was also significantly slower among children with reading difficulties between Grades 2-4 and 3-5. The two reading groups displayed similar growth rates between Grades 4 and 6. Spelling growth rates did not vary significantly with gender. Overall, our study highlights the persistence of spelling difficulties even after 6 years of systematic teaching in children with reading difficulties. The severe and persistent spelling deficits of Greek-speaking children with reading difficulties may be attributed to the rich morphological system of the Greek language, the intermediate Greek orthographic transparency (in the direction of writing), and their limited experience with print.

This article offers a descriptive account of seven interjections, "eish", "yho", "tjo", "sho", "hayi", "hau", and "mxm", which are adopted from different local South African languages into South African English. It investigates the frequencies, orthography, syntactic position, collocational forms and discourse-pragmatic roles of these seven interjections, through the lens of pragmatic borrowing and postcolonial corpus pragmatics. The data were retrieved from the South African segment of the Global Web-based English corpus and underwent quantitative and qualitative analysis. The findings indicate that the interjections are all emotive interjections, which mostly express negative emotions, except "hayi", which is a phatic interjection that is largely used to show disapproval of some information. All the interjections favour clause-initial position except "mxm", which is a loan interjection that represents the kiss-teeth or suck-teeth oral gesture that is common in some parts of Africa and the Caribbean. The article affirms that these loaned interjections accentuate the distinction of South African English from other varieties of English.

Spelling difficulties are commonly associated primarily with spelling errors. However, it is not uncommon for spelling challenges to transform the whole writing process into a formidable struggle. This paper delves into the exploration of whether and to what extent analyses of children's writing processes can enhance our understanding of their difficulties, potentially contributing to the assessment of spelling challenges. We focused particularly on the degree of hesitation within words and the ability to detect and correct spelling errors among children with and without reading and spelling difficulties, as well as how these processes impact the quality and lexical diversity of their texts. Additionally, we sought to contribute to disentangling the influence of spelling and decoding abilities on these processes. A cohort of 47 children, aged 10-13, participated in the study, comprising 16 typically developing children, 16 with predominantly spelling difficulties, and 15 with both reading and spelling difficulties. Our analysis encompassed their spelling performance in both standardized tests and task-oriented writing samples, as well as an examination of their pausing and revision behaviour. As expected, we found robust correlations between the children's spelling test scores and the proportions of spelling errors in their texts. Furthermore, our findings indicated that children encountering spelling difficulties exhibited a reduced ability to detect and correct errors compared to their peers without such challenges. Additionally, they displayed a slightly higher tendency to experience word-internal interruptions, aligning with prior research. The children who also had reading difficulties produced fewer words and processed words more slowly compared to children in both the other groups. Intriguingly, process data did not reliably predict text characteristics, suggesting that dysfluent writing may not significantly detriment the overall quality of the text, contrary to our initial expectations based on prevailing writing development models. Nevertheless, the study revealed considerable individual variation, with some participants demonstrating a high degree of struggling and dysfluency, resulting in poorer text outcomes, but also others whose struggling processes led to better outcomes. We posit that the crucial aspect lies in identifying these individuals within a classroom context and gaining insights into their processes to provide them with appropriate, formative feedback and adequate writing tools to facilitate their writing.

Children's writing depends on strategic and self-regulated behaviors as well as on attention and transcription skills. Despite the well-established effectiveness of interventions based on the self-regulated strategy development model (SRSD), little is known about their effects when combined with the explicit teaching and systematic training of attention or transcription. This study compared the effects of SRSD interventions that taught students a planning strategy and how to use it compose text, with additional components of attention (via focused meditation exercises) or transcription (via copy and alphabet exercises). We used a quasi-experimental design with three groups of Portuguese third graders: SRSD + attention (n = 42), SRSD + transcription (n = 37), and wait list (n = 34). Measures of transcription, executive functions, motivation, written production, and academic achievement were collected before and after the interventions. Analyses of co-variance revealed that the SRSD + transcription group surpassed the others in terms of handwriting fluency as well as in terms of spelling accuracy, though only among the weakest spellers at pretest. Moreover, in comparison to the wait list group, both SRSD groups showed better planning skills, wrote more complete texts, and displayed better executive functioning at posttest. After the intervention, though the SRSD + transcription group produced better texts than their peers, the SRSD + attention group achieved better academic performance, but only among those with poorer grades at pretest. Regarding motivation, we only found an effect of the SRSD + transcription intervention on self-efficacy for ideation, among students with lower self-efficacy at pretest. These findings suggest the importance of articulating writing and self-regulation strategies with attention and transcription training in early schooling.

We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate reading-writing relations. Beyond the overall relation, we systematically investigated moderation of the relation as a function of linguistic grain size (word reading and spelling versus reading comprehension and written composition), measurement of reading comprehension (e.g., multiple choice, open-ended, cloze), and written composition (e.g., writing quality, writing productivity, writing fluency, writing syntax), and developmental phase of reading and writing (grade levels as a proxy). A total of 395 studies (k = 2,265, N = 120,669) met inclusion criteria. Overall, reading and writing were strongly related (r = 0.72). However, the relation differed depending on the subskills of reading and writing such that word reading and spelling were strongly related (r = 0.82) whereas reading comprehension and written composition were moderately related (r = 0.44). In addition, the word reading-spelling relation was stronger for primary-grade students (r = 0.82) than for university students/adults (r = 0.69). The relation of reading comprehension with written composition differed depending on measurement of reading comprehension and written composition--reading comprehension measured by multiple choice and open-ended tasks had a stronger relation with writing quality than reading comprehension measured by oral retell tasks; and reading comprehension had moderate relations with writing quality, writing vocabulary, writing syntax, and writing conventions but had weak relations with writing productivity and writing fluency. Relations tended to be stronger when reliability was higher, and the relation between word reading and spelling was stronger for alphabetic languages (r = 0.83) than for Chinese (r = 0.71). These results add important nuances about the nature of relations between reading and writing.

Dyslexia is the most prevalent disorder in the world that causes difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling. Pupils with dyslexia show trouble with their cognitive skills. Various interventions were already introduced for their treatment but dyslexia is still a trending disorder. The available interventions utilized for these pupils' learning open the research area for the current state-of-art of learning interventions for pupils with dyslexia. The results of this Systematic Literature Review show the trending interventions, sensory approaches utilized, and difficulties for pupils with dyslexia learning. Papers published over a period of 5 years were reviewed and their data was collected using a rigid systematic process. Based on the gathered data, several analyses were conducted. The search shows that nowadays, technological-based interventions are trending specifically apps and games, in parallel haptics technology is in its very initial stage. The most predominant sensory approaches were visual and auditory, followed by kinesthetic and tactile, mainly intervening with non-technological and technological interventions. There are still many open issues and research opportunities in the field of learning interventions for pupils with dyslexia, as most researchers utilized the visual and auditory approaches for the feedback and guidance of these pupils, while they lack to utilize the kinesthetic and tactile.

Primary school students rely heavily on textbooks for instruction. Using the variety of textbooks, a description of the theme textbooks' linguistic quality is conspicuously absent, particularly for students in the fifth grade. Language fit for students' growth, communicative language, and coherence and cohesiveness were all included in this study's analysis of textbooks' language quality. Qualitative content analysis was used in this study's methodology. All texts from the heat and transfer-themed of fifth-grade textbooks published by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, Yudhistira, and Erlangga publishers were included in the study. Documentation was utilized to collect the data. Sample, record, reduce, infer, and narrate were all data analysis approaches used. The findings of this research indicated that the three publishers' textbooks had excellent language quality in terms of language compatibility for students' growth and the communicative language issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture and Erlangga was wonderful, but Yudhistira was awful. There were a lot of solid points made in the Ministry of Education and Culture's publications. Both Yudhistira and Erlangga performed admirably. The quality of textbook language was found to be satisfactory in this study.

An extensive number of corrective feedback (CF) studies have examined learners' errors with grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling (non-formulaic forms) and established an association between learners' uptake of CF and their second language development. However, learners' errors with formulaic sequences (FSs) comprising idioms, collocations, lexical bundles, and compounds (formulaic forms) have received scant attention in CF research. This study investigated any associations among formulaic vs. non-formulaic errors, CF types, uptake, and successful uptake rate by drawing on the audio-recordings of 36 hours of primarily meaning-oriented teacher-learner interactions in three advanced English as a foreign language classes. The findings demonstrated that learners made more errors with FSs, whereas CF was provided significantly more often for their non-formulaic errors. Learners' non-formulaic and formulaic errors were treated significantly more frequently through recasts and elicitations, respectively. Uptake and successful uptake rate was significantly higher when CF was provided for learners' formulaic errors than non-formulaic ones, which could be explained by relatively greater saliency, significance, and noticeability of FSs. The findings of log-linear analyses indicated that uptake and successful uptake rate varied depending on formulaic vs. non-formulaic foci of errors and CF types.

Background: Phonological processing skills have been found to contribute to spelling development across different orthographies; however, less is known about the role of orthographic knowledge. This longitudinal study explores the contribution of phonological and orthographic knowledge to spelling development in a semi-transparent orthography (Swedish) across a period of 10 years. Methods: A group of Swedish speaking children were assessed on phonological recoding (phonological choice-task), orthographic knowledge (choice-task) and spelling (dictation task) in primary school (grade 2, age 8, total N = 99), secondary school (grade 8, age 14, N = 99) and again in upper secondary school (year 2, age 17, N = 79). Furthermore, spelling in a natural writing assignment was collected in upper secondary school. Spelling scores from grade 8 (dictation) and year 2 in upper secondary school (dictation and text) were included as dependent variables in three sets of hierarchical regression analyses. In the first step spelling performance in grade 2 was included to control for the autoregressive effect. In the second step, orthographic knowledge and phonological recoding from grade 2 were entered into the model in order to test for the longitudinal prediction. Results: Test scores within and across ages were significantly correlated in bivariate analysis. Regression analysis revealed that orthographic knowledge in grade 2 was a unique longitudinal predictor of spelling performance across time-points (secondary and upper secondary school) and assessment formats (dictation and text), beyond the contribution of the control variables. Conclusions: This study confirms the role of early orthographic knowledge in Swedish spelling development throughout the school years assessed in standardized dictation tasks as well as in naturalistic writing assignments.

We investigated spelling errors in English and Spanish essays by Spanish-English dual language learners in Grades 1, 2, and 3 (N = 278; 51% female) enrolled in either English immersion or English-Spanish dual immersion programs. We examined what types of spelling errors students made, whether they made spelling errors that could be due to crosslinguistic influence, and whether errors were associated with instructional program, English learner status, and grade level. Compositions were transcribed and coded using the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software. Spelling errors were suggestive of crosslinguistic influence that was mostly unidirectional from one language to the other rather than bidirectional. Spelling errors were related to instructional program such that students in Spanish-English dual immersion made more English spelling errors in English compositions due to Spanish influence, and students in English immersion made more spelling errors in Spanish compositions due to English influence. Students in higher grades also made less English spelling errors in English compositions due to Spanish influence than students in lower grades. These findings suggest that dual language learners acquire spelling patterns in one language influenced by instruction and home language, which transfers to spelling in the other language.

It has been widely accepted that developmental dyslexia (DD) exhibits deficits in reading and spelling. However, the role of phonology and semantics in reading and spelling in dyslexia has not been systematically investigated. In Experiment 1, 45 Chinese children with DD and 43 age-matched controls read two tests with Chinese characters. One test controlled character's familiarity and regularity, and the other test controlled character's phonological consistency and semantic transparency. In Experiment 2, 43 Chinese children with DD and 41 controls spelled a sublist of characters in the two tests in Experiment 1. Our results support two main facts. Firstly, typically developing Chinese children can utilize more lexical or semantic information in reading characters when phonetic regularity or consistency in characters are absent, but Chinese children with DD cannot, indicating an impairment in the division of labor between phonology and semantics in reading in Chinese DD. Secondly, the division of labor between phonology and semantics in spelling have different patterns in Chinese DD compared with controls. Controls utilize semantics as a compensation for the absence of phonetic regularity or consistency when spelling characters, while children with DD do not, indicating an impairment in the division of labor between phonology and semantics in spelling in Chinese DD. The research supports the triangle model and provides empirical evidence for the division of labor between phonology and semantics in reading and spelling in Chinese children with and without reading disabilities.

Most children across the world learn to read and write in non-alphabetic orthographies such as abjads (e.g., Arabic), abugidas (e.g., Ethiopic Ge'ez), and morphosyllabaries (e.g., Chinese). However, most theories of reading, reading development, and dyslexia derive from a relatively narrow empirical base of research in English--an outlier alphabetic orthography--and a handful of mainly Western European Roman alphabets. Consideration of the full spectrum of the world's writing systems reveals multiple dimensions of writing system complexity, each of which could possibly create obstacles for the developing reader. Daniels and Share (Sci Stud Read 22:101-116, 2018) proposed a multi-dimensional framework for assessing a range of writing system characteristics likely to challenge literacy acquisition: linguistic distance, non-linearity, visual uniformity and complexity, historical orthographic inertia, spelling constancy despite morphophonemic alternation, omission of phonological elements, allography, dual purpose letters, ligaturing, and symbol inventory size. The present study examines the applicability of these ten dimensions to understanding reading and spelling acquisition in Malayalam, a non-European language written in a non-alphabetic script. Malayalam, a south Indian language spoken by some 35 million people, employs a writing system typical of the Brahmi-derived Indic scripts used by almost two billion people throughout South and Southeast Asia. We found that a majority (7/10) of the D&S dimensions are indeed useful for understanding the challenges of learning to read and write in Malayalam. Three dimensions are not applicable, and an additional dimension, word length, needs to be added to the framework. The popular uni-dimensional approach of characterizing orthographies as "shallow/transparent" or "deep/opaque" (mis)classifies Malayalam as a highly "transparent" or "shallow" script simply because the characters almost invariably have a one-to-one correspondence between symbol and sound. Clearly, however, there are many other dimensions of complexity, such as non-sequentiality, visual similarity, allography, ligaturing, and inventory size, that challenge the learner and prolong the task of learning to read and write. We conclude that the popular uni-dimensional characterization of writing system variation along a single continuum of spelling-to-sound consistency fails to do justice to the multi-dimensional complexity of many, perhaps most, of the world's writing systems and the challenges they pose for literacy learners.

Spelling instruction is often overlooked by many teachers during reading and language arts. The purpose of this study was to implement a manageable differentiated word study instruction curriculum, drawn from the "Words Their Way (WTW)" curriculum, to determine how it affected students' spelling accuracy and how the participants perceived its effect on students' daily journal writing time in a fourth-grade self-contained classroom. Students were placed into small groups based on their spelling pre-test scores. Data was collected through field notes, student and teacher interviews, a pre- and post-test, and a survey. Qualitative data was analyzed using the constant comparative method, and quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Four major themes emerged including benefits and challenges of the "WTW" curriculum, "WTW" curriculum's perceived impact on students' journal writing, and "WTW" curriculum helping improve students' spelling accuracy. The researcher also found that most of the participants showed growth on the post-assessment.

Background: Learners with reading and writing difficulties (RWD) are accommodated in Mauritian government schools without formal curriculum adjustment and teacher support. Little is known about their RWD. The aim was to describe the characteristics of Grade 4 learners with RWD. Aim: To describe the characteristics of Grade 4 learners with RWD. Setting: Government primary schools in Mauritius, in urban and rural areas. Methods: Grade 4 learners with RWD from 20 randomly selected schools were identified with the Screening Tool for Learning Disorders (STLD). A comparative design was used. Parents of 67 learners with RWD (research group [RG]) gave consent. Forty-nine learners without RWD were selected as a control group (CG) based on academic performance and consent. Hearing loss and visual impairment were excluded. The Clinical Evaluation of Language Function Observation Rating Scale (CELF-5 ORS), the Schonell Spelling Test and the Gray Oral Reading Test were used. Results: The CELF-5 ORS showed a wide range of difficulties of the RG with speaking, listening, oral reading and writing. There were significant differences between the RG and CG with reading and spelling. Despite being in Grade 4 (mean age 9.0 years), the mean spelling age for the RG was 5.5 years, corresponding to a Grade 1 level. Positive correlations were found between the STLD and listening, speaking and reading on the CELF-5 ORS for the RG. The more likely it was that participants had specific learning disorders on the STLD, the worse the spelling. Those with a history of speech and language delay performed more poorly with reading and spelling. Conclusion: Difficulties were confirmed by all the measures. Diagnostic assessments for specific learning disorders are required to exclude intellectual disability and other comorbidities. There is a dire need for intervention programs for learners with RWD in mainstream government schools in Mauritius. Programs should include speech-language therapists and aim at prevention, identification, diagnosis and intervention. Contribution: The study is important for speech--language therapists working in the education system and primary school teachers. There is a dire need to implement intervention programs for learners with RWD in mainstream government schools in Mauritius.

The goals of LETRS are to build teachers' knowledge of language structure and the processes involved in learning to read words, spell, and comprehend, and then to help teachers apply these understandings in their classrooms. The LETRS courses, which are designed for teachers in grades K-3, are to be implemented over two years. In the first year of LETRS, teachers learn how to teach phoneme awareness, beginning and advanced decoding, word recognition, and spelling. In the second year, participants shift their focus to oral language, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing in response to reading. Several theoretical frameworks for understanding reading and writing in grades K-3 provide conceptual cohesion and are woven throughout the eight units. Each unit, however, allows teachers to focus on one important aspect of teaching at a time. The courses build knowledge in a progressive sequence in which one topic supports and is connected to the next--a feature that distinguishes LETRS from professional development offered as a patchwork of various options that teachers can self-select. In this article, Louisa C. Moats explains the origin and development of LETRS and the rationale for the course content.

Mobile learning has extensively influenced students' learning gains and motivation due to the hardware and software development of mobile devices and applications in recent decades. On-the-go learning increases the capacity for flexible and joyful learning and guarantees access to the instructional content anywhere, anytime. Despite their potential benefits, the presence of mobile applications in students' every educational activity can be detrimental to their cognitive abilities as misuse or overuse of specific applications may influence students' concentration and critical thinking. One such downside is reported for overusing automatic spelling correction software, known as AutoCorrect (AC), in language learning. Uncertainty regarding the educational values of AC has increased as students' spelling skills and vocabulary knowledge have declined. The main problem this study addressed is examining the relationship between EFL learners' AC use and their vocabulary size; and if their academic self-regulation mediates this association. Data were gathered from 101 foreign language learners who completed the measures of AC use, academic self-regulation, and vocabulary size. The results showed significant positive correlations between AC use, vocabulary size, and self-regulation. Further, testing the model supported a mediating role for self-regulation in the relationship between AC use and vocabulary size, suggesting that AC use can lead to more knowledge of English words in the condition of deploying self-regulatory strategies. The study signifies how academic self-regulation can assist learners in exploiting mobile learning (m-learning) to their advantage and attaining their educational goals more efficiently.

This research aims to determine teacher candidates' perceptions of the concept of spelling through metaphors. Phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used in the research. The easily accessible sampling method, which is one of the purposive sampling methods, was used to form the study group of the research. The participants of the research are 88 teacher candidates studying at a university in Turkey. In the research, to determine the opinions of teacher candidates on the concept of spelling through metaphors, "spelling…similar/like to; because…" were provided to fill in the blanks in the open-ended question form with the metaphor they wanted. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the research, it was determined that 74 metaphors in 9 categories were produced by 88 teacher candidates. As a result of the analysis of the findings obtained from the research, the teacher candidates' concept of spelling; they defined as the rules that ensure the effective, correct, and beautiful use of the language, and enable it to be understood, facilitate the narration, eliminate the confusion of concepts, and which must be followed according to a certain standard in writing. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the teacher candidates' perceptions of the concept of spelling were positive and their awareness levels were high. In addition, it was determined that teacher candidates expressed the concept of spelling as a systematic, regular, and harmonious composition that adds color and flavor to life, develops intelligence and memory, and emerges as a result of regular studies.

Spelling is a crucial skill for academic success however many pupils with learning disabilities lag behind in academic tasks because of poor spelling skills and its accompanying negative effects. Past studies on pupils with learning disabilities focused more on reading than on spelling skills. Thus, the objective of the study was to examine the core effects of visual imagery and cloze spelling instructional strategies on pupils with learning disabilities' performance in spelling. The pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design of 3 x 2 factorial matrix was adopted. Sixty pupils with learning disabilities (Male = 38, Female = 22, Mean age = 9.35) from three government-run primary schools were chosen using purposive sampling. Three instruments used were Pupil Rating Scale (Revised) (r = 0.76), Right Word Recognition (r = 0.91) and Pupils' Note Books on Dictated Words. Data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the core effect of treatment on the performance in spelling of pupils who experience disabilities in learning was significant F[subscript (3,56)] = 2.085. p<0.05, [eta squared] = 0.418), but gender had no significant core effect. Therefore, teachers should employ the visual imagery and cloze spelling instructional strategies while teaching spelling to pupils with learning disabilities.

Because vocabulary knowledge is considered the building block of language learning, any difficulties concerned with vocabulary can harm the overall vocabulary acquisition process. Literature suggests that native Arabic speakers struggle to notice vowels while reading English texts. This can result from the differences between L1 and L2 linguistic systems or the negative transfer of L1 processing routines to the L2 in their attempt to process the L2 forms. This study investigates this problem and whether gender affects this phenomenon or not. It used a test on twenty-eight participants to examine the effect of gender on vowel blindness, which type of vowels (short or long vowels) are more problematic, and the kinds of vowel spelling errors that are easily noticed when processing vowels. The results showed that gender does not affect vowel blindness in a significant way. In other words, the overall results showed that the role of gender cannot be considered to have a significant effect. Thus, male and female students both struggled to deal with short vowels equally. However, males also showed difficulties regarding the long vowels. The research also revealed that missing vowel spelling errors are salient and more likely to be noticed while processing vowels for both genders.

The fundamental skills in language teaching are reading, listening, speaking and writing. It is important to establish links with other language skill areas in the development of writing skills. In this study, it was aimed to analyze the writing skills of Kyrgyz students studying distance learning at A1 level during the pandemic. 28 Kyrgyz students participated in the study. In this context, it was desired to determine the most common mistakes in written expression in order to evaluate the students' habits of using Turkey's Turkish language structures at A1 level. The data in the study were generated by having the students write a self-introductory article. In this framework, descriptive analysis was used in this study designed with qualitative research model. The data were collected through the writings uploaded on the web interface of Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University. The instructor took the data from the E-Course Distance Education Portal tool and analyzed them in order. Based on the writing assignments in the study, errors originating from the students were evaluated and interpreted. These errors were categorized as phonetics, morphology and spelling. As a result of the research, it was determined that students made negative transfers with the influence of their mother tongue. However, it was supported that the instructor should keep the motivation of the student high with the role of a guide in the language teaching process and the materials that attract the student's interest in the distance education process should be more involved in the learning-teaching environment. In this context, it is assumed that the results of the study will contribute to teaching Turkey's Turkish to Kyrgyz.

Literacy influences all aspects of life. Unfortunately, a rising number of students struggle with reading and spelling, which can result in enormous educational barriers. Difficulties in literacy accompanied by learning-related problem behavior can create additional risk factors. Effective interventions for these students should consider individual needs and focus on multiple components of learning simultaneously. The present single-case study focused on the effects of motivational reading racetracks, with and without self-graphing, on the word-reading and spelling performance of three third graders with severe literacy and behavior problems. Our intervention was carried out three times a week over a 5-week period. The results show strong effects of the racetracks on reading, while the self-graphing component did not seem to be an additional booster. Regarding spelling, the ability to read words was not equivalent to being able to spell all words correctly. However, effects were found when self-graphing was added. In sum, the data suggest that, while it was effective to practice reading using racetracks without motivational reinforcers, it was not sufficient to merely practice spelling. Nevertheless, self-graphing had a positive effect on spelling when attention was focused on spelling the words correctly.

This qualitative study investigates the errors committed by Turkish EFL learners and the rate of spelling mistakes to grammar errors in learners' paragraphs. In order to examine these issues, 19 participants studying at a private high school in Turkey took part in this study. The qualitative data were collected through students' paragraphs written in English. A content and a descriptive analysis were employed to analyze the data. The grammar errors were categorized as errors of omission, addition, misformation, and double types throughout the scrutiny. The errors were related to various grammatical elements such as verbs, articles, verb inflections, noun inflections, and prepositions. The most frequent error category was omission, and the grammar elements the students errored most were prepositions. The results also showed that the students' grammar errors were approximately two times more than their spelling mistakes. Given the results of this study, some suggestions for future studies and pedagogical implications were provided.

This article aims to give a comprehensive guide to planning and designing vocabulary tests which include Identifying the skills to be covered by the test; outlining the course content covered; preparing a table of specifications that shows the skill, content topics and number of questions allocated to each; and preparing the test instructions. The test should meet several criteria as the instructions should be brief and clear; the questions should cover all kinds of skills, tasks and exercises covered in the classroom and textbook; the test items should require the students to perform tasks at the phoneme, grapheme, affix, word, phrase and paragraph levels. The questions should test student's ability to think, apply, infer, connect, and synthesize information, not mere recall, and should not use exact sentences and examples from the textbook. The test should have as many production questions as possible. It should have adequate discrimination power; should be reliable and valid; and should be a power and a speed test. In addition, the article describes the optimal test length, when to give the tests during the semester and the test duration. It describes the test paper format; how the tests are scored, marks allocated for each question type and whole test, using whole marks, not fractions; deducting points for spelling and grammatical mistakes. After scoring the answer sheets, the instructor returns the marked answer sheets to the students, shows the marking system and goes through the questions one by one, gives the correct answers and mentions the common errors. Follow-up issues such as calculating the test validity, reliability, and discrimination power, using the test results for diagnosing weaknesses and providing remedial work are given. The effects of the proposed test model on learning outcomes and students' views are also given.

With the aim of investigating effective approaches to extensive reading in Thailand, this study examined the vocabulary uptake and retention rate from reading 350 headwords graded reader. To determine the effects of reading a graded reader on students' vocabulary knowledge and retention, 20 words within four bands of different frequencies of occurrences were selected as target words in the study. The spelling of each word was changed to ensure that students have never seen these words before. 35 intermediate level Thai students volunteered to participate in the study. Three tests, which were word-form recognition, meaning recognition, and translation, were administered immediately after reading, then after 10 days, and then after a two-month delay. The results demonstrate that words can be learned incidentally, as the majority of the words were not learned from reading one graded reader. Words with more frequency were more likely to be learned and more resistant to decay. The data indicate that, on average, the meaning of only three of the 20 words will be recalled two months later. This study implies that just a little amount of new vocabulary is remembered after reading one graded reader, and that substantial amounts of reading are required to increase students' vocabulary.

This study sought to solve the puzzle of persistent occurrence of mechanical errors in pre-service primary school teachers' writings. Data consisted of short compositions from four intact classes (n=75) of second-year university students at the Higher Institute of Arts and Crafts of Tataouine (ISAMT), Tunisia. Results of data analysis revealed a high rate of mechanical errors and indicated that negative transfer and fossilization were major obstacles in the process of mastering L2 writing.

Many users of social media from different countries and speaking different languages that use non-Latin orthography such as Arabic choose to transliterate their first name and surname in Romanized script, vis English. Due to the differences between the user's native language and English in vowels and consonants and how they are pronounced, some people make vowel and consonant errors in the English spelling of their names due to the user's proficiency level in English and their awareness level of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences in their native as well as English language. This study aims to investigate vowel omissions in the English spelling of Arabic personal names, what kind of vowels are omitted, location of the missing vowels, why educated Arabs omit vowels in the English spelling of their names, whether vowel omissions are attributed to transfer from the native language (Arabic) or lack of competence in English spelling. Analysis of a sample of Arabic personal names with missing vowels in their English spelling showed that in the vast majority of misspelled names, one short vowel is missing. In most cases, the missing short vowel is fatha /a/ in the first syllable of the name. It seems that educated Arabs transfer the Arabic vowel system to English. The Arabic orthographic system has 3 long vowels represented by written letters [foreign characters] /a:, i:, u:/ and 3 short vowels that are represented by diacritics which are pronounced but not shown in the written form of Arabic words. In addition, omission of short vowels in the English spelling of Arabic names may be attributed to how the name is pronounced in the dialect of the Arabic speaker, not how it is pronounced in Standard Arabic, especially when the vowel is in the initial syllable of some surnames. Vowel deletion may also be due to insufficient proficiency in English and lack of contrastive knowledge of the Arabic and English vowel and spelling systems. Examples of transliterated personal names with missing vowels, explanations, causes, and recommendations for more accurate spelling in English are given.

This study analyzed semantic errors in the written compositions of first-year BSEd English students. 86 participants were asked to write a narrative essay and provide feedback on their writing difficulties and language learning needs. The collected data were statistically analyzed. Semantic errors were categorized into 8 types: code-switching, spelling mistakes, assumed synonyms, assumed antonyms, collocations, similar forms, incorrect word usage, and wrong affixes. A total of 242 semantic errors were identified, with collocations being the most common (F=90) and code-switching the least common (F=8). In terms of writing difficulties, 50 out of 86 participants struggled with forming well-formed collocations, while 7 had difficulty spelling unfamiliar words. Regarding language learning needs, 66 participants expressed the need for clear guidelines on error codes, and 29 participants requested more time for learning readiness. Demographic profiles did not significantly impact the frequency of errors among participants (p>0.05).