The Most Common Spelling Errors Arab Students From Grades 6-9 Make in Their Learning of English

ahmedm's picture
Journal Title, Volume, Page: 
US-China Foreign Language, ISSN: 1539-8080 Volume 13, Number 3, March 2015 (Serial Number 138)
Year of Publication: 
2015
Authors: 
Ahmed Awad Amin Mahmoud Raba'
An-Najah National University
Current Affiliation: 
An-Najah National University
Preferred Abstract (Original): 
The Most Common Spelling Errors Arab Students From  Grades 6-9 Make in Their Learning of English 
Ahmed Awad Amin Mahmoud An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine 
  The study aims to investigate the most common spelling mistakes English learning students from Grades 6-9 in Nablus and Jenin UNRWA schools make in light of gender and grade variables. For this purpose, the researcher dictates texts from the school textbooks of these grades to a sample of 241 students (107 males and 134 females). The results showed the following: (1) The most common mistakes UNRWA students from Grades 6-9 make are: frequent letters, dropping letters, putting letters before others, dropping the letter “e”, and the unpronounced letters respectively; (2) there are significant statistical differences in means of spelling errors among students from Grades 6-9 due to gender variable in favor of males, who show a high level of errors in comparison of females; and (3) there are no significant statistical differences in means of spelling errors among students from Grades 6-9 due to grade. In the light of the study findings, the researcher suggested some recommendations, such as dictation exercises which focus on the common errors, pinpointing the differences in spelling systems between the mother tongue and its English counterpart in order to avoid interference from the spelling system.