OnDifficultiesandErrorsinEnglishSpelling

田雪静+高珊

【Abstract】This paper primarily demonstrates spelling difficulties for both foreign learners and native speakers. Some reasons， explanations and solutions will be illustrated accordingly. Meanwhile， this paper also compares the spelling errors made by native speakers and foreign learners.

【Key words】English spelling； foreign learners； English speaking； writing words； native speaker； spelling errors

1. Introduction

Spelling is a significant barrier for the English speaking students， and it is also an important factor in the way people present themselves. （V.J Cook， 1997） Some tend to claim that spelling is difficult for native learners， let alone for non native speakers， but actually we would not consider it right all the time. Prince Charles once said ‘All the letters sent from my office needs to be corrected on my own， which seems quite interesting among native users. Basic reasons will be listed below specifically.

2. Reasons of incorrect words

As observing in the process of English learning， I have noticed that foreign learners acquire the spelling of the words simultaneously when they learn to speak that language. By contrast， native students speak all words long before they write them down when they were very young. When starting to write some words， they incline to exploit the guess phonetically， which is a fast way to recite long words. On the other side， native speakers occasionally confused by the application of phonetic script. For instance， when asked to write ‘Ded， they sometimes should misuse ‘dead. Thus， in case of this situation， I strongly recommend that learners should refer to dictionary for help for avoiding this mistake once they are able to look up the words.

2.1 According to a survey launched by linguists， twelve-year-old British children have a better command of roughly three thousand written words， which equals to a middle school students vocabulary volume in China. Two thousand among those are words without suffix or prefix. Approximately two hundred might be wrongly spelled. As a matter of fact， English children have a far larger spectrum of potential errors due to the bigger vocabulary. Behout （1985） also suggested that English speaking students between nine and eleven had a higher errors rate than non-native adults.

2.2 Inaccurate spelling owns its derivation in the casual freedom of childhood. They wrote the word by mistake and then the dim impression lasted since then. However， the mature and diligent native speakers are more likely to prevent this happening.endprint

3. Types of mis-spelling

The approach employed here is to analyze the spelling mistakes by various types of users of English

3.1 Letter errors

The major type of mistakes for Chinese English learners it to distinguish the letters （s ，c and z）. Quite often some words such as （‘prise， ‘price， or ‘prize ） mistakenly show up in the composition. Learning， including learning a second or a foreign language， is influenced by students prior knowledge. （Brown， 2000） Let us take certain areas in China like Southern parts as an example， a large number of people might not tell the sounds between ‘L and ‘R because of their mother tongue dialects. In spoken English， for example， the first letter of word ‘road should have been pronounced as ‘R， whereas they make the sound like ‘L instead of ‘R sound， which could be part of reasons they make mis-spelling in writing.

3.2 Vowel errors

The most general mistakes appear to arise from confusion of similar vowels. Some other vowel mistakes come from phonetic in origin， such as， the following words： （list for least， live for leave， still/ for steal， taff for tough）

3.3 Omission of one letter

In several cases， the letter neglected was an unsound consonant. The majority of these phenomena seems to be the result of carelessness. Example are listed as following： （wether， suprise， govement， prononce）

3.4 Addition of one letter

This happens quite often in handwriting， which is regarded as carefulness as well， namely some following letters （sharpe， sharke， pounctuation）

3.5 Single words written as two words

The errors are specifically general with compound pronouns， to be illustrated， （anybody/any body； everybody/every body； somebody/some body）， and so on.

3.6 Two words written as one word

These words show up occasionally with combined words， namely， in order for in order； in front for in front； in spite for in spite.

3.7 Countable and uncountable

As claimed by Jia （2003）， one area where language transfer is particularly popular among Chinese learners in the formation of English plurals. Some writers misuse the countable words for uncountable ones. For example， the put a redundant letter “s at the end of mass noun words， say， （sheeps for sheep； fishes for fish）. A number of words change completely into new words for plural forms， such as， mice for mouse， feet for foot.

3.8 Careless

In this category， I will point out some careless errors， for example， （the for they； they for them； his for him； our for us）， and extra. Actually the writer is perfectly aware of the right words but do not check their work carefully after finishing. Therefore， the effective method of preventing this mistake is to revise and double check once again.endprint

4. Principles and solutions

Even so， we confront difficulties when propose to consider what could be done about them. Spelling is a visible memory. Learners recite the spelling of a word with common shape. The words look right if they are spelled correct. Thats the reason words misprinting might be hard to detect. As for this， we conclude two main principles. The first one is that excellent spelling requires consistent handwriting. Its difficult for people who once in a while write correctly， but sometimes falsely.

The second principle is getting rid of incorrect impression at all costs. Once you doubt the word you are writing do take it down first and then the other later to compare those two in order to see which one looks good. Never let yourself see an incorrect form， if you are not sure， look it up in a dictionary. Therefore， English learners should train themselves to write a right word to the best of our abilities. In addition， always keep a dictionary at hand while reading， studying or writing. By doing so， there would be any excuse of mis-spelling. The only reason of spelling wrongly is totally about carelessness and laziness.

Great spelling is similar to great gardening. It is the matter of putting fine plants and expelling the weeds. Everyone has his own shortcomings. Not only author but also doctors will mis-spell the words while writing a huge amount of sentences， paragraphs or essays. Thereby， when spotting an incorrect spelling， you should correct it immediately just like weeding out useless grasses. Placing the right word in a notebook is also the best way to develop good habit of language learning. So in Chinese primary school， teachers force pupils to write out the correct words ten or twenty times for memory consolidation.

Generally speaking， foreign English learners problems with every single word can be best solved by using the system for knowledge of single word form to make students focusing on the visual formats of a small number of words that are predictable in an academic context.

5. Discussions

Effective spelling is crucial for learning English as a second language owing to its social and academic impact， and it for no other reasons. Nevertheless the amount of focus given to it in research is minimal. In the favorite view， accurate spelling is a sign of education； a spelling error is a solecism that betrays carelessness. Spelling thus is an important factor in which way people present themselves， and that is why political writers would not use anything but standard spelling. Editors of academic articles persist in either British or American spelling even though they should find it unthinkable to dictate those speakers at conference should deliver speech with a British or an American accent. Spelling features dominate in the curriculum in any countries throughout the world， while examinations are instructed to reduce marks for poor spelling in all subjects.endprint

We can get back to the basic issue about the extent to which foreign learners make full use of various routes for spelling. Like the native adults and children， a huge advantages of non-native speakers mistakes include sound and letter correspondence. Therefore， we can spot problems with sound/letter correspondence in the use of homophones such as， discreet （discreat）， fairs （fares）， and of near-homophones such as， fear （fair） and break （brick）. Those sound-related errors might be more extensive since the pronunciation of non-native users of English may differ from native speakers in magnificent ways. Like young native learners usually analyze the pronunciation of words in the different way from adult counterparts. More meticulous evaluation of the contribution made by the speaker phonological system requires considering the spelling errors.

6. Conclusions

There wont be any two learners classified the achievement in extremely the same way and to some extent a number of errors could fall into different categories. （Wyatt， 2006） Nevertheless I wish the system I have exploited would prove mostly useful. The mistakes made by people can be foreseeable， if not， I suggest their relatively low frequency. Admittedly the number of times specific errors have occurred that is relevant. The conclusion therefore is that non-native writers are surprisingly having a better command of English spelling compared with native younger writers. Doubtless this is the tip of iceberg， showing only those who have made it successfully through difficult early stages and smoothing over differences between native speakers. However， it absolutely demonstrates that spelling is a unique field of language achievement and requires furthermore researches and surveys to investigate what the difficulties exist at the earlier stages and how it relates to basic and general issues.

References：

[1]Bebout，L（1985）An error analysis of misspelling made by learners of English as a first and as a second language.Journal of psycholinguistic Research 14（6），569-593.

[2]Baker，C（1993）Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.Clevedon：Multilingual Matters.

[3]Brown，H.D（2000）.Principles of Language learning and teaching（4th ed）.White plains，NY：Addison Wesley Longman，Inc.

[4]Jia，G.（2003）The acquisition of the English plural morpheme by native Mandarin Chinese-speaking children.Journal of speech，language and hearing research，46，1297-1311.

[5]V.J Cook L2 users and English spelling.The linguist journal.Vol.18，No.6，1997.

[6]Victor Wyatt，2006 An Analysis of errors in composition writing.Vol.1，No.3 2006.endprint