AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPELLING ERROR IN WRITING OF RECOUNT TEXT PERFORMED BY EIGHTH
GRADE STUDENTS OF MTS DARUL ULUM WARU SIDOARJO
THESIS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S. Pd) in Teaching English
By:
Suryani Cahya Ningrum NIM. D75212069
ENGLISH TEACHER EDUCATION DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING
SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SURABAYA
ABSTRACT
Ningrum, Suryani Cahya. (2017). An analysis of Students’ English Spelling Error in Writing Recount Text Performed by Eighth
Grade Students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo. A Thesis.
English Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel, Surabaya. Advisor: Nur Fitriatin, M.Ed. Ph. D
Key Words: error analysis, spelling error, types of spelling errors, writing recount text
Spelling is an English sub-skill under writing. It is such an essential skill of writing that has to be mastered by all students for the purpose of good communication in the written form of the language. However, in writing, students frequently committed errors in spelling the English words. Therefore, this study focuses on the spelling error analysis to evaluate
students’ error in spelling the English words. This study uses qualitative
descriptive design. Then, document, rubric and questionnaire are the instrument to analyze the data. It is purposed to analyze the types of spelling errors, frequency of spelling errors, and causes of spelling errors
in students’ writing of recount text. This study involved the eighth-grade
ABSTRAK
Ningrum, Suryani Cahya. (2017). An Analysis of Student’ English Spelling Error in Writing Recount Text Performed by Eighth Grade Students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo. Tesis Program Studi Pendidikan Guru Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Tarbiyah dan Keguruan, Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Sunan Ampel, Surabaya. Penasihat: Nur Fitriatin, M. Ed. Ph. D
Kata Kunci: analisis kesalahan, kesalahan ejaan,jenis kesalahan ejaan, menulis teks recount
TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE ... i
APPROVAL SHEET ... ii
ADVISOR APPROVAL SHEET ... iii
MOTTO ... iv
DEDICATION ... v
ABSTRACT ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii
PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN TULISAN ... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... x
LIST OF TABLES ... xii
LIST OF CHARTS ... xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xiv
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study ... 1
B. Research Problems ... 9
C. The Objective of Study ... 9
D. Significance of The Research ... 9
E. Scope and Limitation ... 10
F. Definitions of Key Terms ... 11
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Theoretical Framework ... 12
1. Spelling Error ... 12
a. Definition of Spelling Error ... 12
b. Spelling Error and Spelling Mistake ... c. Spelling Error on Students’ Writing of Recount Text ... 15
d. Types of Spelling Error ... 16
e. Cause of Spelling Error ... 20
2. Frequency of Spelling Error ... 24
a. Frequency Distribution ... 24
b. Ungrouped Data Frequency Distribution Table 24 c. Relative Frequency Distribution Table ... 26
3. Recount Text ... 28
a. Definition of Recount text ... 28
c. Generic Structure ... 29
d. Language Feature of Recount Text ... 30
4. Language learning Acquisition in Adolescent. 30 5. Second Language Learning Errors in Adolescent ... 33
a. Types of Errors in Adolescent ... 33
b. Causes of Errors in Adolescent ... 33
6. Reviews of Previews Studies ... 34
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Approach and Research Design ... 39
B. Research Presence ... 40
C. Setting of the Research ... 40
1. Research Subject ... 40
2. Place ... 41
D. Data and Source of Data ... 42
E. Research Instrument ... 43
F. Data Collection Technique ... 44
G. Data Analysis Technique ... 48
H. Checking Validity of Finding ... 49
CHAPTER IV : RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Research Findings ... 50
1. Types of Spelling Errors ... 50
2. Frequency of Spelling Error ... 54
3. Factors Causes of Spelling Error ... 55
a. Interlingual Error ... 55
b. Interalingaul Error ... 58
B. Discussion ... 65
1. Types of Spelling Error ... 65
2. Frequency of Spelling Error ... 82
3. Factors cause of Spelling Error ... 85
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ... 93
B. Suggestions ... 94 REFFERENCES
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter focuses on the basic idea related to the study. It presents background of the study, statement of the problem, research question, objectives of the study, significance of study, scope and limitation of the study, and definition of key terms.
A. Research Background
Acquiring a second language is a challenging process and needs a lot of efforts. For example, Indonesian learners face a lot of difficulties in English learning process specially to write an accurate spelling. The frequencies of errors are quite a lot, they feel difficult in writing accurate spelling that causes them make some type of errors such as linguistic errors, semantic, phonological and syntactic.1 It is proved that from 30 items, errors in structure are the highest frequency and 62,34% from 98 students made errors in writing area.2 Another research done by Hemabati indicated that spelling error problems committed by mother-tongue interference, misuse sentence fragment, oversuse, lack of grammatical knowledge also formation and developmental errors. 3 Then, according to Corder, language error is a natural as the product of
1 Rakhmawati Ningsih. Error Analysis in the Students’ English Writing
A Case Study with the Second Year Students of SLTPN 239 Tanjung Barat. (Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta). 2004 2 Faisal Mustafa, Mulya Kirana, and Syamsul Bahri Ys, “Errors in EFL
writing by Junior High Students in Indonesia”, International Journal of
Research Studies in Language Learning, vol. 5, no. 5 (2016),
http://www.consortiacademia.org/index.php/ijrsll/article/view/1366, accessed 24 Nov 2016.
3 Hemabati Ngangbam, “An Analysis of Syntactic Errors Committed by
Students of English language Class in the Written Composition of Mutah University: A Case Study.” European Journal of English
2
learning process.4 In other word, error is allowed for language learners to indicate students’ learning progress.
Many students have experience problems with English language spelling. One of the common that often done by students’ written work is spelling errors. According to Ibrahim that one of the problem in learning language is spelling English words correctly.5 While Hyland stated that spelling which is considered as important component become the main challenge for most English beginner learners that causing misspelled word and incoherent sentence.6 Whereas, good spelling becomes one of the crucial thing for literacy so it makes writing much easier because the writer focus on the ideas to be conveyed, as Noah Webster stated that spelling are the foundation of reading and the greatest ornament of writing.7So, the development of students’ spelling helps them to focus on the writing without being distracted by the fear of committing spelling error. Having good spelling make them easy and free to focus on the ideas they want to express without of being conscious of the mechanics of writing and the result of their writing will be free from excessive spelling errors. According to Smedly, spelling errors negatively affect the clarity of the written message, and consequently interferes with communication between the writer and the reader.8
Based on research with online test conducted by EF (Education First) English Proficiency Index 2015 showed that Indonesia was
4 S. Corder. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).180
5 M.H. Ibrahim, "Patterns in spelling errors" English Language Teaching Journal, vol. 32, no.3, 1978, p.207-212.
6 K. Hyland, Second language writing (New York: Cambrige University Press, 2003)
7 Cited in Richard L. Venezky, “From Webster to Rice to Roosevelt,” in
CognitiveProcesses in Spelling, ed. Uta Frith (London: Academic Press,
1980), 9–30.
8 D. Smedley, Teaching the basic skills: Spelling, Punctuation, and
3
at the rank of 32 out 70 countries.9 It means that Indonesian English ability is insufficient. Also, Indonesia occupied ranks 8 in Asia and Indonesia is in the middle level, as stated by Steve Croock as a Director of Educational Research and Development EF.10 The result of study showed that learners’ English writing Competence was encountered problems in many categories one of them is spelling.11
According to University of Indonesia’s International law expert Hikmahanto Juwana warned that the growth of Indonesia’s English proficiency level progressing very slowly.12 So, there is hesitancy if Indonesian learners are not being trained to be fluent in English then it will be hard for them to compete with others coming from other countries.13 Moreover, according to Yusuf Muhyidin, the Culture and Education Ministry’s training and courses development director said that:14
“In our educational system, Indonesian teacher usually focus more on grammar that the practical use of language in conversation. Even after studying English from secondary to
9 EF EPI, “EF English Proficiency Index 2015”,
(http://media2.ef.com/__/~/media/centralefcom/epi/downloads/full-reports/v5/ef-epi-2015-indonesian.pdf accessed on September 7th, 2016) 10 “Kemampuan Bahasa Inggris Orang Indonesia di Level Menengah”,
news.okezone.com,
http://news.okezone.com/read/2015/11/05/65/1244148/kemampuan-bahasa-inggris-orang-indonesia-di-level-menengah, accessed 24 Nov 2016.
11 Machalla MA Megaiab, “The English writing competence of the students of an Indonesian senior high school”, The 2014 WEI International Academic Conference Proceedings. Bali, Indonesia.
Retrieved June, vol. 6 (2014),
http://www.westeastinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Machalla-M.A.-Megaiab-Full-Paper.pdf, accessed 26 Mar 2017.
12 Paul Goddard, “Indonesia Suffers Setback in English Proficiency”,
American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia,
http://www.amcham.or.id/fe/5124-indonesia-suffers-setback-in-english-proficiency, accessed 24 Nov 2016.
13 Ibid,.
4
senior high school most of students could not speak English. Indonesian are studying grammar but not speaking and maybe that’s the weakness.”
It means that Indonesian learners have not master the international language yet in this case English. Whereas, students start having English lessons at Elementary school, Junior and Senior High Schools and Universities. The Primary School students study English for six years and the Junior High School students study English for three years. It means that every graduate of Junior High School has studied English for nine years.
According to Mahardika Hali, the Director of Center English First said that Indonesian English skills effect on the competitiveness in Asean Economic Community in which Indonesia is one of the country of MEA that equipped in term of language aspect.15 Indonesia has human resources who have the opportunity and challenge to compete and survive in MEA era.16 Human resources be the main key in winning the global competition. Each individual is required to have good skills in English to control communication on the free market MEA.17 This condition causes the urgency of the English language skills. But, the problem is that the ability of Indonesian students’ writing is still low even though they are in university level. It is based on UNESCO survey that public interest in writing is only 0,001 percent, that mean in a thousand students there is only one that has
15 “Kemampuan Bahasa Inggris orang Indonesia Meningkat”,
news.okezone.com,
http://news.okezone.com/read/2016/05/20/65/1393621/kemampuan-bahasa-inggris-orang-indonesia-meningkat, accessed 24 Nov 2016. 16Indra Budi Sumantoro, “Opportunities & Challenges for Industries,
Workers, and Government of Indonesia in the Asean Economic Community Implementation”, Prosiding International conference on
Information Technology and Business (ICITB) (2015),
http://jurnal.darmajaya.ac.id/index.php/icitb/article/view/438, accessed 25 Jan 2017.
17 “Bahasa Inggris Jadi Tantangan Komunikasi di Era MEA”, Language
Center,
5
interesting in writing.18 One of the field that took attention is writing spelling errors.
Regarding writing is one of the skills that has big role, Philips and Jogensen stated that using appropriate grammatical and spelling pattern choices and sentence structures will create a meaningful written work for readers.19 It is essentially that writing can be apprehended by the readers. According to Alkire, writing spelling is the process of writing words by using the letters conventionally to create the structure.20 The problems especially came across from developing practical language skills such as appropriate word spelling in English with various social contexts in an original meaning. Moreover, Lee stated that the problems of using practical language are getting worse because English learners are likely to focus mainly on learning grammar without referring to spelling and dictation in an appropriate manner.21
Spelling is a language sub-skill under writing.22 It is such an essential skill of writing that has to be mastered by all learners and users of English language for the purpose of good communication in the written form of the language. Moreover, good writers must realize of their spelling in order to avoid error communication or misspelling. According to Kuiper and Allan, English language spelling seems clearly in theory but actually to be a little more
18 [PRIHATIN] UNESCO : Minat Baca Masyarakat Indonesia 0,001
Persen - DetikForum,
http://forum.detik.com/prihatin-unesco-minat-baca-masyarakat-indonesia-0001-persen-t1484102.html, accessed 25 Jan 2017.
19 L and Jorgensen and Philips. Discourse Analysis as Theory and
Methode. (London: Sage, 2002), p.85
20 Alkire - Dictation as a Language Learning Device (TESL/TEFL),
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Alkire-Dictation.html, accessed 25 Nov 2016.
21 I. Lee, “Teaching Coherence to ESL Students: A Classroom Inquiry.”
Journal of Second Language Writing, vol. 11, no. 2, (2002) pp.135-159.
22 Esther M. Dada,” Spelling Errors: Causes, Influence on Students’
6
complex in practice.23 They stated that many people find difficulty in spelling because English language spelling does not always directly reflect the sounds of word.
From those problems, spelling error is one of the serious problems in writing producing by learners in second language acquisition. According to Botley, Hakim and Dillah, spelling error highly extended and contentious features of second language learners’ written performance.24 Spelling error usually occurs because the students cannot distinguish between letters and sound of the word when they write.
There were some previous studies that similar to this study. The first previous study was about The Academic Writing Performance and Spelling Errors of English as Foreign Language Students.25 The second was a thesis, The Academic Writing Performance and Spelling Errors of English as Foreign Language Students at Tabuk University: A Case of the Introductory Year Students 2015.26 The third was, English Spelling Problems among Students at the University of Dongola, Sudan.27 Another previous research was Error Analysis in the Students Writing Narrative Paragraph at MTsN Pajajaran Pamulang.28 So, the researcher was going to discuss deeply about Analysis of Students’ English Spelling Error
23 Ibid,.
24 Simon Botley and Doreen Dillah, “Investigating spelling errors in a Malaysian learner corpus”, Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, vol. 3 (2007), pp. 74–93, accessed 27 Nov 2016.
25Malek Jaber M. Albamawi, “The Academic Writing performance and
Spelling Errors of English as Foreign Language Students at Tabuk University: A Case of the introductory Year Students 2015.” Asian Journal of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Vol.4, No.1 (2016), pp.23-37
26 ibid,. pp. 1-8
27 Ahmed Ali Fadul Benyo, “English Spelling Problems among Students University of Dongola, Sudan.” Educational Research Journals. Vol. 5(9), 2014, pp.361-367
28 Herlinawati. Error Analysis in the Students Writing Narrative
Paragraph at MTsN Pajajaran Pamulang. (State Islamic University
7
in writing of Recount text Performed by Eighth Grade Students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo.
Moreover, the different objectives from previous research was that, there are a lot of errors that have found in University, the researcher wanted to find out the spelling error in high school whether in this level spelling error would be found or not, considering junior high school was the beginner level to learn English academically. In addition, writing spelling in the English writing competence of the students of Indonesian Junior High School was chosen as the topic in this research since it has not got a maximum portion in leaning activity where the research held.
The researcher chose Recount text based on the syllabus of KTSP Curriculum in which the standard competition in the second semester of eight-grade showed that students would be focused on monolog text that was recount. So, based on that curriculum demanded, recount text became one of the learning focuses in the eighth-grade students in Junior High School.
In this research, the researcher gave specification to subject of research that took problem from students of Islamic Junior High School (MTs) as matter of fact based on the competency and basic competence of school based curriculum. There are three purpose of English in Junior High School one of them said that developing students’ competence to communicate in oral and written form to achieve the level of functional literacy.29 In other word, students will be able to write some text in English correctly with correct spelling and good punctuation. But, in fact in High School especially in junior high school students and teachers are focus on the national examination. 30 According to Prof. Dr. Patuan Raja, M. Pd. Who is a professor in English Education Department of Lampung University, National exam (UN) mandated by the UU No.20/2003 on the National Education System article 58 (2) also
29 Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan (BSNP). Standar Isi untuk Satuan
Pendidikan Menengah dan Dasar: Standar Kompetensi dan Kompetensi Dasar Smp/MTs. (Jakarta: Departement Pendidikan Nasional).2006 30 “Mengurai Benang Kusut Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris - KOMPASIANA.com”,KOMPASIANA,http://www.kompasiana.com/kris tianadiputra/mengurai-benang-kusut-pembelajaran-bahasa
8
contributed to the failure of English language teaching. By the holding of National exam, teachers become more focus on students’ ability to face problems of reading comprehension, as the result the teachers turn aside the students’ writing and speaking ability. So, that’s why many students often make spelling error in their writing.
In general, there are two difference patterns in teaching English in Indonesia, firstly learning English to make students able to do certain test such as in Ganesha Operation (GO) and Primagama. Secondly, learning pattern make students able to communicate in English such as in English First (EF).31 Moreover, in a tutoring agency, teachers focus on the problem faced in National exam (UN) and National Selection of State University (SNMPTN) by focusing on grammar and reading comprehension while English language course such as EF, learning objectives are generally designed to make students able to speak thus, the use of Indonesian in the classroom as much as possible to be avoided. Based on the statement above, most students in Junior High Schools become passive learner in the class because they just focus on UN material than writing or speaking ability.
The researcher chose MTs Darul Ulum Waru because this school has several programs including extracurricular which focus on students’ English comprehension such as English Club and also there are two class programs that is intensive class program and regular class program.32 In the intensive class program students are demanded to learn English more than the regular class because there will be study excursion in Gontor boarding school in which that place emphasize on the bilingual, English and Arabic. Moreover, the intensive class program has mission to develop students’ English skill, one of them is spelling and writing. It is different with other school because other school just have English subject only in regular class. Based on those reasons, the researcher had an opinion that English skill especially spelling learned more intensively. In other reasons, the seventh-grade and eighth-grade students sometimes joined spelling bee competition in some
31 Ibid.
32 http://www.mtsduwaru.sch.id/html/index.php accessed on November,
9
competition hold by some university.33 Finally, this study focused on an analysis of students’ English spelling error in writing of Recount text performed by eighth grade students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo.
B. Research Question
Based on the background above, the research questions were formulated as the following:
1. What are the type of spelling errors found in students’ eight grade writing of recount text in MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo?
2. Which are the spelling error that most frequently occur in students’ eight grade writing of recount text in MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo?
3. What are the possible factors that caused spelling error in eight grade students writing recount text in MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo?
C. Research Objective
Based on the problems above, this study was intended:
1. To find types of spelling error in the students’ writing of recount text in eight grade students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo. After finding all the types of spelling error, the researcher expected that the spelling error can be decreased on early so that the students can improve their writing.
2. To analyze the most frequently spelling error, occur in students’ writing of recount text in eight grade students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo.
3. To find out the possible factors that contribute to the eighth-grade students’ spelling error in writing recount text.
D. Significance of the Study
Researcher hopes that the result of this study will be useful for all readers especially for:
1. Theoretically
33 Interviewed with one of the English teacher, Ucik Nurul Hidayati,
10
This study provides an explanation of an analysis of students’ English spelling error in the written of recount text performed by eighth grade students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo.
a. For English teacher: The researcher expected that the result of the study is able to give information for teacher to avoid spelling error and to find the solution to this problem. Also, it is expected to the teacher to be more aware about the importance of spelling on students writing ability. Therefore, the teacher may consider the method or strategy in teaching that help students to deal with spelling proficiency.
b. For students: The result regarding on spelling error on students’ writing ability is able to be useful for students to know the importance of understanding the categories and factors of spelling error. Therefore, this research can also give the students understanding about spelling in written form. Besides, this research can increase the students’ awareness about the importance of spelling in writing activity so that they may improve their spelling ability.
c. For the future researcher: This research is also hoped will be useful as a literature review for any further research which focuses on the similar topic with this research.
E. Scope and Limitation of the Study
11
or mistakes. In some cases of this research, the term errors and mistakes were used interchangeably. The researcher focused in finding out the types of spelling errors and the most frequently of spelling errors also the factor cause the spelling errors in writing done by the students of MTs Darul Ulum Waru Sidoarjo.
F. Definition of Key Terms
To avoid misinterpretation, the term of this study are defined as follows:
a. Analysis
Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it.34 In this research, analysis is finding out to know the error of students’ writing of recount text especially students’ English spelling error in the writing of recount text. b. Spelling error
Al-Jarf states that spelling error is any faulty words, faulty graphemes (single vowel, single consonant, vowel digraphs, consonant digraph, phonogram, suffix or prefix) within a word are counted as an error.35 In this research, spelling error is an error made by students in the area of constructing words in writing recount text.
c. Recount text
Recount text is one of text types that retells past events. According to Anderson, a recount is a piece of text that retells past events, usually in order in which they happened.36 In this research, one kind of texts that is learned by Junior High School students at the eighth-grade is recount text.
34 Smith Car. “Open Dictionary Wikipedia, (http://wikipedia.edu/com,
accessed on August 4, 2017)
35 Reima Al-Jarf, “Spelling error corpora in EFL”, Sino-US English Teaching, vol. 7, no. 1 (2010), pp. 9, accessed 8 Feb 2017.
36 Mark Anderson and Katy Anderson, Text Types in English 2, (South
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter covers both several theories and previous studies related to the research. The review or related theories are about spelling error, narrative text and language learning in adolescence while the review of previous studies is described in the last sub-chapter.
A. Review of Related Literature
In a research, it is important to describe the theories related to the problems of this study in order to give relevant knowledge in the field. Therefore, this chapter describes some theories related to the area of interest of this research.
1. Spelling Error
a. Definition of spelling error
Spelling error is one of part of writing problems. The writing problems include grammatical problems; mechanical problems; sentence structure and problem of word choice; cognitive problems (punctuation, capitalization, spelling error, and content problem); and problem organization.1Although incorrect spelling does not often prevent the understanding of a written message, it can adversely affect the readers’ judgement. According to Harmer, if incorrect spelling occurs frequently, all too often bad spelling is perceived as a lack of education and care.2 Besides, according to Croft, the only possible justification for learning to spell is accurate spelling is necessary for effective writing.3 On the other word, if
1 Ibrahim Muhammad Alfaki. “University Students’ English Writing Problems: Diagnosis and Remedy.” International Journal of English
Language Teaching. Vol. 3. No. 3. 2015. pp.44-46
2 H. Douglas Brown. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
Fifth Edition (Longman: Pearson Education, 2007). p. 256
13
there is no need to communicate by writing there is no need to learn to spell. It means that spelling is a skill of writing, we learn to spell in order to communicate through writing. According to Al-zuoud & Kabilan spelling is the learner’s ability to write a word correctly. Moreover, according to Croft spelling is an aspect of written language so the teaching learning of spelling must take place as far as possible within the context of writing.4 In short, spelling is a part of mechanical component of writing that have role in writing. We need to be aware of our spelling in writing activity so that the information that we write will be conveyed well. Harmer stated that:5
An issue that makes spelling difficult for several students is the fact that not all varieties of English spell the same words in the same way. Which is correct: color or colour, and theater or theatre? How do we decide between the use of s and z in words like apologise and customize.
It can be inferred from the way the students face the problem in spelling. It is cover the amount of problem that being faced almost a lot of students. Moreover, he stated that one of the reasons spelling is difficult for students of English is that the correspondence between the sound of a word and the way it is spelt is not always obvious.6 As matter of fact, English learners as foreign language writing often make an error in writing. Spelling error still appears in large number in writing producing by learner; even drilling and training technique did in every school or university.7 According to Benyo, spelling errors are due to
4Ibid. p.12
5 Jeremy Harmer. The Practice of English Language Teaching Third
Edition, (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001). p.256
6 Jeremy Harmer, The Principle of English Teaching 3rd edition, (England: Longman, 2001), p. 271
14
the sound problems.8 The other definition of spelling error is given by Al-Jarf he said that:
Spelling error is any faulty words, faulty graphemes (single vowel, single consonant, vowel digraphs, consonant digraphs, phonogram, suffix or prefix) within a word are counted as an error. Any graphemes that are added, deleted, substituted by another or reversed are counted as misspellings.9
The similar statement is, according to Perveen & Akram who said that sounds, letters, word parts, word meaning, and word history are those elements which play the important role in learning to spell the words of English.10 To sum up, spelling error is combinations of letters forming whole word incorrectly. Spelling becomes an important thing in writing because it can influence the meaning of word itself. it can influence the meaning of a message because the message in writing is delivered in a composition of words that forms a sentence, and the words are form from spelling letter.
b. Spelling Error and Spelling Mistake
Students who want to master writing should be able to spell well. In fact, not all students always use correct English in their writing. In analyzing learners’ language in appropriate way, the researcher should look forward the difference between spelling mistake and spelling errors which theoretically have different meaning.11 Spelling mistake refers to a performance error, it happens when the learner knows the rule but still doing the errors. This
8 “Educational Research Journal”, Educational Research Journal, vol. 5, no. 9 (2014), pp. 361–7, accessed 24 Nov 2016.
9 Reima Al-Jarf, “Spelling error corpora in EFL”, Sino-US English
Teaching, vol. 7, no. 1 (2010), p.9, accessed 8 Feb 2017.
10 Uzma Perveen &Faiza Akram, “A Comparative Study to Know the
Causes of Spelling Errors Committed by Learners of English at Elementary Level in District Kasur and Lahore Pakistan”, European
Academic Research, Vol.2, No.2 (2014), p.2605
11 H. Douglas Brown. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
15
statement also supported by Ellis who stated that spelling mistakes reflect student’s forgetfulness in a performance.12 On the other words, spelling mistake is student’s lack of producing language skills. It occurs when the student forgets the rule of language performance.
Spelling error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker reflects the competence of the learner, such as it is spelling error, most likely not a spelling mistake, and spelling error that reveals a portion of the learner’s competence in the target language.13 According to Ellis, spelling errors reflect gaps in learner’s knowledge. It occurs because the learner does not know what the correct is.14 In short, spelling errors occurs when the students has not understood what correct and wrong is. In other words, spelling errors require further relevant learning to take place before they can be self-corrected. Those are the difference between spelling mistake and spelling error.
c. Spelling Error on Students’ Writing of Recount text
Writing skill can be defined as a skill of language which is very complex. Writing plays an important role for students who are required to be able to write different types of text according to curriculum, such as descriptive, narrative, and recount texts. In writing, the writers and the readers cannot communicate orally as it stated by Goldman and Hirsch writing usually requires the writers to cover their topic more clearly and in greater detail than speaking.15 In short, people can communicate directly in
12 Rod Ellis. Second Language Acquisition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) p.17
13 H. Douglas Brown. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
Fifth Edition (Longman: Pearson Education, 2007) p. 258
14 Rod Ellis. Second Language Acquisition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) p.17
16
spoken, but in writing they have to think their idea and using good language first before they write something.
Writing a text in English as foreign language is not easy. Students have difficulties to write in English well because English is considered as foreign language in Indonesia. This tendency is likely cause by its different syntax, organization, vocabulary, and spelling from the native language. Therefore, the students sometimes made some errors especially spelling errors in their writing. Spelling is a part of mechanical component of writing. According to Harmer, like other skill, writing has mechanical components that include handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and the construction of well-formed sentences, paragraph, and text.16 So, good spelling in writing is crucial. It can help the students focus on the writing without being distracted by the fear of committing of spelling error as stated by Smedley that spelling error in writing negatively affect the clarity of the written message, and consequently interferes the communication between writer and reader.
Spelling error in students writing recount text usually occurs because the students cannot distinguish between letter and sound of the word when they write. The error is a failure which always happened in the same situation because the students have a lack of knowledge, performance, or competence about the rule or system of language and also less of practice to write.17
d. Types of Spelling Errors
The errors that occur on students are divided into several categories. Another difference is that different studies came up with different number of categories for example Book and Harter identified 18 types of spelling errors, while Bahloul identified 12 and Al-Bakri identified
16 Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach Writing (Longman: Pearson Education, 2004). p.44
17
8.18 One of the reason behind these differences is the variation in the methods used for data collection and classification for example Book and Harter analyzed essay, exam papers, and dictation test papers. 19This resulted in creating categories for the errors that appear in dictation test. As for differences in classification methods, Book and Harter considered adding a letter to a word that was anticipated because it appears later in the word, adding an extra letter, and doubling the wrong letter as three different categories. In the current study, all those three types are categorized as Addition errors.
According to Benyo many spelling errors are due to omission, addition, substitution, and transposition of the sounds.20 The other opinion is according to Bestgen and Granger there are 9 categories of spelling errors.21 They are letter, word, boundary, apostrophe, single letter addition, omission, substitution, transposition, and multiple errors letters as seen in the following table:
18 Mohammad Thaher Al Jayousi. Spelling Errors of Arab Students: Types, Causes, and Teachers’ Responses. A Thesis in Teaching English
to Speakers of other Languages. (American University of Sharjah, 2011)
19 W. Book & R. Harter. Mistake which Pupils make in Spelling. The
Journal of Educational Research. Vol.19. No.2, 1929 pp. 106-118
20 Ahmed Ali Fadul Benyo,” English Spelling Problems among Students at the university of Dongola, Sudan”, Educational Research, Vol.5(9), 2014 pp. 363
21 Yves Bestgen and Sylviane Granger, “Categorising spelling errors to assess L2 writing”, International Journal of Continuing Engineering
18
Table 2.1
Types of Spelling Errors
No Categories of spelling error
Example
1. Omission of a letter Completly – completely
Concious – conscious
Distinc – distinct
Eople – people
Mecanisms – mechanisms Throghout – throughout
2. Addition of a letter Develope – develop
Youngs – young
Alledged – alleged Eightheen – eighteen Envolves – evolves
Ridicoulous – ridiculous
3. Single letter instead of double letter
Especialy – especially
19
Ocurred – occurred Accuring – occurring
4. Double letter instead of single letter
Appatments – apartments
Allmighty – almighty
Detailled – detailed Loosing – losing Proffessors – profrssors
5. Substitution of one letter
Lifes – lives
Dependend – dependent
Consecuently – consequently Confortable – comfortable Engeneering – engineering
Uncredible – incredible
6. Interchange of two adjacent letter
Concieved – conceived Birht – birth
Lfie – life Peopels – peoples
Entreprises – enterprises
7. Involving an apostrophe
Its – it’s
20
From those theories above, the researcher used Bestgen and Granger theory included 9 categories of spelling error because the researcher wanted to find the spelling errors in Recount text in which those categories more compatible with the characteristic of students in writing recount text.
e. Cause of Spelling Errors
Understanding why students make spelling errors is essential. A number of research conducted with students learning English at different levels as a second language or foreign language reveals some causes related to spelling error. According to Al Jayousi there are four
Childrens’ – children’s
8. Erroneous splitting or joining of words
(word segmentation error)
Business_man – businessman Every_one – everyone
Free_time – freetime
Every_day – everyday Air_pollution – airpollution Even_though – eventhough
9. Two or more error of the same type or of different types
Payed – paid
Weter – whether
Dustbinman – dustman Theirselves – themselves Beggining – beginning
Configurating – configuring
21
causes of spelling errors, first is irregularity of English, second is mother tongue interference, third is lack of knowledge of spelling rules and their exception, the last is performance.22 While, according to Woralack there are three causes of spelling error, the first main cause is irregularities of English spelling system, some other causes of mistakes occur as a result of linguistic differences between English and learners’ first language, and other serious mistakes exist because of students’ carelessness when writing.
Moreover, there is some cause of spelling error according to Miressa and Dumessa:23
1. Irregularities of the English system or phonological problems.
According to Smith, Bahloul, AL Hasan and Jayousi thought agree that the first main cause of spelling errors are the irregularities of the English spelling system. It means that the way English words are spelt is complex and inconsistent. According to Lounsbury, cited in Susan is of the view that English spelling is consistent in consistency.24 This means that sounds can be spelt in several ways, letters can represent several sounds and most spelling rules have many exceptions. The lack of consistent norms for written representations and changes that happened over time in English language sound system were
22 Mohannad Thaher Al Jayousi. Spelling Errors of Arab Students: Types, Causes, and Teachers’ Responses. A Thesis in Teaching English
to Speakers of other Language. (American university of Sharjah, 2011)
pp. 49-50
23 Mihiretu Miressa and Melkamu Dumessa, “Investigating factors
contributing to grade nine students spelling errors at Don Bosco High and Preparatory School in Batu”, Journal of Languages and Culture, vol. 2, no. 6 (2011), pp. 103–15
22
some of the forces that led to greater divergence of the written forms and the spoken forms of the language.25
Moreover, Carney stated that the type of inaccurate spelling is categorized as articulation or interference error which occurs as a result of spellers’ use of particular pronunciation.26 According to Cook there are 44 phonemes as compared to 26 letters in English. This means that the sounds are more than letters, so a grapheme can correspond to many phonemes in English. For example, the grapheme (th) that corresponds to phonemes /f/ in “graph” and /g/ in gh depending on their initial or final position in words. This shows the irregularities or inconsistence between letters and sounds. Another cause of spelling error is students also have phonological problem in which students have vowel sounds which can be spelt in many ways such as, words like, “hut and heart”, “see and sea”. These words can be pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently. In trying to spell these words students may employ the same consonant or vowel sound to substitute the correct spelling.
2. Students’ lack of desire to learn correct spelling of English words.
Many spelling errors are committed due to inattention of the learners when they spell words. Many English learners do not give attention to whether they write a word with the correct spelling or not. They simply write the way they feel rather than the way it is supposed to be written. According to Harry students commit spelling errors because they are not motivated to learn correct spelling due to lack of desire to learn it. Furthermore, Shaw suggests that the students should develop a desire to learn, devote
25 S. Kemmer. “The History of English and Standardization”
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/Kemmer/histengl/spelling.html, accessed on February 13, 2017)
23
sufficient time to learn the spelling of English words and become competent speller. 27He elaborated this case and stated, “The first and most important step in correct spelling is the desire to learn, to devote the necessary time to learn. The third is to use all available means to learn”
3. Interlingual and interalingual errors
The third errors made by second or foreign language learners can be divided into interlingual and interalingual errors. According to Keshavarz’s taxonomy in a journal by Shekhzadeh and Geichi, interlingual errors result from the transfer of phonological, morphological, grammatical, semantics and learner’s mother tongue to the learning of the target language.28 Interlingual errors are also called by transfer or interference errors.29 In short, interlingual errors are the errors of second language learners due to the different term of first and second language.
While according Richard, in a journal by Heydari and Bagheri, stated that intralingual and developmental errors occurs during the learning process of the second language at a stage when the learners have not really acquired the knowledge. In addition, errors are also caused by the difficulty or the problem of language itself.30Then, according to Touchie, intralingual and developmental errors are due to the difficulty of the target of second language.31
In this study, the researcher used Miressa and Duressa theory that stated the three causes of spelling
27 H. Shaw, Errors in English and Ways to Correct Them. (New York: A division of Harper and Row Publishers, 1970), p. 167.
28 Ebrahim Shekhzadeh, Majid Gheichi. “An Account of Sources of Errors in Language Learners’ Interlanguage” International Conference
on Languages, Literature and Linguistics. Vol. 26, 2011, p.160
29 Hanna Y. Touchie, “Second language learning errors: Their types, causes, and treatment”, JALT journal, vol. 8, no. 1 (1986), pp. 77 30 Hanna Y. Touchie, Second Language … 69
24
error such as Irregularities of the English system or phonological problems, Students’ lack of desire to learn correct spelling of English words, Interlingual and interalingual errors.
2. Frequency of spelling error
El-khateeb stated that the frequency of error is the percentage or number calculated of the error appearance.32 It means that the frequency of error is the number of error appearance on the analysis. In this study, the frequencies of spelling errors are the number of students’ errors in their spelling error in writing recount text.
a. Frequency Distribution
According to Sudijono, frequency distribution gives number symbolize to the frequency of variable occurs.33 Then, Mac Donald stated that frequency distribution is a visual display of numerical values ranging from the lowest to the highest number of times each value occurs.34On the other word, frequency distribution showed the highest to the lowest number based on the frequency occurs.
Frequency distribution can be showed in a table named ungrouped data frequency distribution table. b. Ungrouped Data Frequency Distribution Table
Ungrouped data frequency distribution table is one of the statistics’ tables which showed the number of frequency occurs. In this table, the data is not being
32 Mahmoud M. A. El-khateeb. “Errors Analysis of Solving Linear
Inequalities among the Preparatory Year Students at King Saud University” Journal of Education and Practice, Vol.7, No.12, 2016, p.128
33 Anas Sudijono. Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan. (Jakarta: PT. Raja Grafindo Persada), p. 35
34 Stuart MacDonald. Nicola Headlam. Research Method Handbook
Introductory guide to research methods for social research (CLES: The
25
[image:34.420.76.369.110.425.2]grouped.35 The following table showed the example of ungrouped data frequency distribution table:
Table 2.2
Ungrouped Data Frequency Distribution Table
Types of Spelling Errors Number of Spelling Errors occurs
Omission of a letter Errors 30
Addition of a letter Errors 25
Single letter instead of double letter 5
Double letter instead of single letter 15
Substitution of one letter 40
Interchange of two adjacent letter 15
Involving an apostrophe 18
Erroneous splitting or joining of words (word segmentation error)
20
Two or more error of the same type or of different types
19
Total Number of the Whole Spelling Errors evaluation
187
The table above is the example of the ungrouped data frequency distribution table. Using the table above, the researcher would be easily understood the highest spelling errors occurrence.
26
Then, in counting the frequencies of spelling errors’ percentage, the researcher used relative frequency distribution table as the following explanation.
c. Relative Frequency Distribution Table
Relative frequency distribution table is called percentage table.36 Relative frequency provides the percentage of the data finding. It is used to help the reader easily understand the research finding. For example, the following table shows the types of spelling errors, the errors made by the students and the number of total question.
Table 2.3
Relative Frequency Distribution Table
No
Types of Spelling Errors
Number of Spelling
Errors
Number of Total Spelling
Errors Evaluation
Relative Frequency (Percentage)
1. Omission of a letter Errors
30 187 x % = , %
2. Addition of a letter Errors
25 187 5� % = , %
3. Single letter instead of double letter
5 187
� % = , %
4. Double letter instead of single letter
15 187 5� % = , %
5. Substitution of 40 187
� % = , %
27
one letter
6. Interchange of two adjacent letter
15 187 5� % = , %
7. Involving an apostrophe
18 187
� % = , %
8. Erroneous splitting or joining of words (word segmentation error)
20 187
� % = , %
9. Two or more error of the same type or of different types
19 187 � % = , %
To acquiring the relative frequency as explained on the table, it uses the formula as follow:37
Formula: P = F x 100 N Note: P = Percent
F = Frequency of Errors
N = Total Number of the Whole Errors evaluation The formula of relative frequency, as the example above, was used to analyze the frequency percentage of students’ spelling errors in writing recount text.
28
3. Recount Text
a. Definition of Recount text
One kind of texts that is learned by Junior High School students is recount text. Recount text is one of text types that retells past events. According to Anderson, a recount is a piece of text that retells past events, usually in order in which they happened.38 Thus, the special features of recount text could be found in its sequence of events in which the past event is written chronologically. The purpose of the text is usually to give the reader a description of event. Besides, its most common purposes are to inform and to entertain. Moreover, recount text is one of type of texts that retells some events in the past in order to inform and entertain the reader. Recount text includes eyewitness account, newspaper report, letter, conversation, television interviews and speeches.39 b. Kind of Recount text
According to UC High School Kaleen Writing Handbook, recount text is classified into three: personal recount, factual recount and imaginative recount.40
1) Personal recount
Personal recount is where the writer is recounting the personal event that they were involved directly. It means that the writer is actively involved in the activity of the event. The purposes of personal recount are to inform and to entertain the reader.
2) Factual recount
A factual recount is a list of record of a certain event. It can be used to retell the particular incident or event, such as an accident report, eyewitness, science experience, historical events,
38 Mark Anderson and Katy Anderson, Text Types in English 2, (South Yarra: Macmillan. 1997), p. 48
39 Ibid, p. 49
40 University of Canberra, UC High School Kaleen Writing Handbook,
29
and newspaper report. Its purpose is just to inform the reader about what was going on in the past. 3) Imaginative recount
An imaginative recount retells as imaginative story through the eyes of a fiction character. It means, the even that happened in the text do not occur in the real life. Its purpose is usually to entertain, and it usually can be found in textbook. From those three kinds of recount text, it can be seen that there is one typical characteristic that is the text retells past event chronologically.
c. Generic structure of Recount text
Recount text has several significant characteristics which the writer may use. The generic structures of recount text consist of orientation, sequences of events, and reorientation.41
1) Orientation
Recount begins by telling the reader who was involved, what happened, where the event took place, and when it happened. Orientation gives reader background information needed to understand the text, and the reader will recognize about scene setting and context of the text. 2) Sequence of events
Event is the main activities that occurred in the story of the text. In writing recount text, events are ordered in a chronological sequence. Sometimes, additional detail is added to the text to give some information for reader.
3) Reorientation
Reorientation is a closing statement that may include elaboration. Some recount texts also have a concluding paragraph. In this concluding paragraph, the writer can give his/her personal comment or statement, but it is optional one.
41 Lancashire Country Council, primary Framework Support for
30
d. Language feature of Recount text
There are some language features of recount text, as follows:
a. Usually written in the past tense. Some forms may use simple present tense, e.g. informal anecdote storytelling
b. Word that show the order of events (then, next, first, afterwards, just before that, at last, meanwhile).42
c. The subject of a recount tends to focus on individual or group participants (third person, they all shouted, she crept out
d. Personal recounts are common (first person: I was on my way to school…. we got on the bus).43 e. Using action verbs and circumstance such as
adverb of place and adverb of time to show the action and detail information of events that occur in the story.44
4. Language Learning Acquisition in adolescence
Language acquisition is the process by which human acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.45
A normal child will get his first language in relatively a short time roughly from 2-6 years. According Chomsky, not because the child only obtained stimulus then he made a response, but it caused by everyone who is equipped from birth (innate) with a set of equipment or device
42 Lancashire Country Council, primary Framework Support for
Writing, non-fiction, (Lancashire Country Council, 2008), p. 50 43 Lancashire County Council, op.cit, p.7
44 Government of South Australia, Engaging in and Exploring Recount
Writing: A practical Guide for Classroom teachers, (Australia:
Government of South Australia Department for Education and Child Development, 2012), p. 2
45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition accessed on April,
31
which enable her to obtain first language which called the language acquisition device (LED).46 He believes that every child has a language acquisition device which encodes the major principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain. Children have then only to learn new vocabulary and apply the syntactic structures from LAD to form sentence. So, that’s why LAD is a device that distinguishes humans from animals and it also a hallmark of human language acquisition.
Children's language development is not only affected by neurological development but also their biological development. According to Lenneberg child language development follow their biological time that cannot be bargained. A child cannot be forced to encouraged to be able to utter something when the biological capability is not yet possible and vice versa.47
There are some processes in language development from the child age until adolescent or adult.48 In the first year, child steadily progressing through the stages of cooing, babbling and proto-words during the first year of life. Infants emerge as toddlers who can make request, call attention to themselves, and comment on the world around them using their true words such as hey! lookit!. In the second year, children will have amassed a vocab of hundred different words which can use to express a wide variety of meaning in short simple utterances which soon will become long and complex sentence during pre-school
46 Noam Chomsky, Knowledge of language: Its Nature, origin, and Use,
(New York: Praeger, 1986), p. 123
47 Soenjono Dardjowidjojo, Echa: Kisah Pemerolehan Bahasa Anak
Indonesia (Jakarta: Gramedia Widiasarana Indonesia, 2000), p. 60
32
years (3-5 years).49 The fifth birthday, child will be speaking intelligibly about topic beyond the “here and now”, making few grammatical errors, drawing from a lexicon of over 15.000 different words. Entering kindergarten at age six years, children will demonstrate their linguistic prowess by engaging in extended conversation with family and friends, sharing personal anecdote, retelling favorite bedtime stories.50 Nevertheless, a great deal of language competence remains to be acquired.
According to Nippold, by six years of age, children have acquired a vocab of approximately 18.000 different words. Many of which are the names of concrete objects (bike, television) and common action (jump, run). Children’s lexicons will also include many adjectives (sharp, noisy) and adverbs (quickly, slowly) that are used to modify of nouns and verbs. Most of these words will have been learned through informal spoken language interactions with adults, having the opportunity to talk about events that occur in children’s daily lives. Then, children are able to read proficiency around age 9-10 years. A new source of vocabulary learning – written language – becomes available to augment these spoken-language opportunities. With this newly acquired ability to consume a variety of books, magazines, and newspaper children gain exposure to a large number of difficult words. As a result, their lexicon will gradually expand during the preadolescent (age 9-12) and adolescent (age 13-19) years so that by early adulthood they will understand and use at least 60.000 different words. This capacity for acquiring new words and for expanding one’s knowledge of old ones continues throughout the lifespan,
49Paul R (1981). ‘‘Analyzing complex sentence development.’In Miller
J F (ed.) Assessing language production in children: experimental procedures. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press. 36–40.
50 Nippold M A & Martin S T (1989). ‘Idiom interpretation in isolation
versus context: A developmental study with adolescents.’ Journal of
33
particularly in individuals who are active readers, writers, speakers, and acquired who enjoy communicating with others.
5. Second Language Learning errors in adolescent a. Types of errors in adolescent
According Hanna Y. Touchi there are two types or errors: performance errors and competence errors.51 She explains that performance errors are those errors made by learners when they are tired or hurried. It means that this type of error is not serious and can be overcome with little effort by students. While competence errors are more serious than performance error since competence errors reflect inadequate learning. Finally, language learning errors involves all language component such as: phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic. b. Cause of errors in adolescent
There are mainly two major sources of errors in second language learning, the first is interference from the native language while the second is intralingual and developmental factors.52 Interlingual factor is errors due to the influence of the native language. This errors also called transfer or interference errrors. In other hand, intralingual and developmental errors are due to the difficulty of the second /target language. Intralingual and developmental factors include:
i. Simplication: students often choose simple forms and constructions instead of more complex ones.
ii. Overgeneralization: using one form in one context and extending its application to other contexts where it should not apply. For example: the use of comed and goed as the past tense form of come and go.
iii. Hypercorrection: zealous efforts of teachers in correcting students’ errors induce the students to make
51 Hanna Y. Touchie, “Second language learning errors: Their types,
causes, and treatment”, JALT journal, vol. 8, no. 1 (1986), pp. 76–77, accessed 14 Mar 2017.
34
errors in otherwise correct form. For example: students say pird and pattle instead of bird and battle.
iv. Faulty teaching: sometimes it happens that students’ errors are teacher induced ones for example: some teachers are even influenced by their students’ errors in the course of long teaching.
v. Fossilization: some errors especially errors in
pronunciation, persist for long periods and become quite difficult to get rid of. For example: fossilized errors in students as the lack of distinction between /p/ and /b/ in English.
vi. Avoidance: students’ difficulty in producing syntactic structures as the result, they avoid some structures and use simplier structures. For example, Arab ESL learners avoid passive voice.
vii.Inadequate learning: this mainly caused by ignorance of rule restriction and incomplete learning. For example, omission of the third person singular s as in He wants to go swim.
viii. False concept hypothesized: many students’ errors can be attributed to wrong hypotheses formed by the learners about the target language. For example, some students think that is is the marker of the present tense so they produce he is talk to me.
B. Review of Previous Studies
There were some previous studies which have been read by the researcher related to spelling error in writing but the researcher did not find a spelling error in writing recount text. The researcher provided previous studies that have been completed by the previous researchers.
First, the research entitled “The Academic Writing performance and Spelling Errors of English as Foreign language Students”.53 It was done by Albalawi malek Jabr M.
35
This research investigated the academic writing performance and spelling errors of the introductory year students at the English language center at Tabuk University in Saudi Arabia. The objective of this research was to investigate the causes of spelling errors and to examine the categories of spelling errors that are committed by students. The subject of this research included 45 male students at the Introductory year the language center of Tabuk University for academic year 2015/2016. This research used mix methods, qualitative- quantitative study. The result of this research indicated that the participants committed a number of spelling errors that affect the coherence of their academic written text. These errors involved three main categories; omission, addition and substitution. Also, the findings showed that these spelling errors may be attributed to mother tongue interferences in which they related to the differences between the systems of both native language and foreign language.
Second, the research entitled “How Well Do You Spell?
Spelling Proficiency of Foundation Phase Students
Educators”.54 It was done by C. G. A. Smith. This research discussed about the spelling proficiency of students educators that has become under scrutiny. The objective of this research was to endeavor to focus attention on the spelling proficiency of the Foundation phase students’ educators. The idea was to make the students educators aware of their poor spelling ability and to decide on measure to take with regard improving their spelling. The subject of this research was a
