Spelling Revisited: A Case Study of Spelling Mistakes Made by Two Groups of Saudi English Learners with Different Language Proficiencies
Nasser Alasmari1, Adel Khadraoui2

1Dr. Nasser Alasmari, University of Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
2Dr. Adel Khadraoui, University of Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Manuscript received on 14 June 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 10 July 2019 | Manuscript Published on 17 July 2019 | PP: 363-370 | Volume-8 Issue-1C2 May 2019 | Retrieval Number: A10580581C219/2019©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: Researchers have been somewhat concerned with spelling as a research area in the last several decades. However, as a shift from a text-based to a visually dependent culture has been observed, students’ unconscious push away from reading and writing has affected their ability to spell words correctly, which in turn has affected their reading and writing skills (Reed, 2012; Willingham, 2015). This study seeks to determine whether the spelling ability of a group of graduating learners of English differs from that of a group of foundation-year learners of English. The study uncovers and analyses the spelling mistakes made by both groups using a dictation test. The findings showed that the people in these two groups made almost the same number of mistakes despite their different levels of proficiency in the English language. Thus, despite their significantly greater exposure to English, the graduating learners had not succeeded in improving their spelling abilities.
Keywords: Graduating Learners, Foundation-Year Learners, Spelling Mistakes.
Scope of the Article: Natural Language Processing