Verbal and nonverbal predictors of spelling performance in Grades 1-12 were investigated using the national norming data from a standardized spelling test. Verbal variables included number of letters, phonemes, syllables, digraphs, blends, silent markers, r-controlled vowels, and the proportion of grapheme-phoneme correspondence. The nonverbal variable was word concreteness. Word frequency was also included. Results showed that only three variables were consistently strong predictors of spelling performance: proportion of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, number of syllables, and word concreteness. Results are theoretically interpreted in terms of Dual Coding Theory and stages of spelling development. Instructional implications include increased attention to word concreteness in teaching and testing spelling.
References
1.
BearD. R.InvernizziM.TempletonS.JohnstonF. (2000). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice-Hall.
2.
BiemillerA. (1970). The development and the use of graphic and contextual information as children learn to read. Reading Research Quarterly, 6, 75–96.
3.
BryantP.NunesT. (2004). Morphology and spelling. In NunesT.BryantP. (Eds.), Handbook of children's literacy (pp. 91–118). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
4.
CabanJ.HambletonR. K.CoffingD. G.ConwayM. T.SwaminathanH. (1978). Mental imagery as an approach to spelling instruction. Journal of Experimental Education, 46, 15–21.
5.
CarlisleJ. F. (2003). Morphology in learning to read: A commentary. Reading Psychology, 24, 291–322.
6.
ChallJ. S. (1983). Stages of reading development.New York: McGraw-Hill.
7.
CohenJ. (1988). Statistical power analyses for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
8.
CohenJ.CohenP.WestS. G.AikenL. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation for the behavioral sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
9.
DarchC.SimpsonR. G. (1990). Effectiveness of visual imagery versus rule-based strategies in teaching spelling to learning disabled students. Research in Rural Education, 7, 61–70.
10.
DollE. J. (1989). Review of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement. In ConoleyJ. C.KramerJ. J. (Eds.), The tenth mental measurements yearbook (pp. 411–412). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
11.
EhriL. C. (1986). Sources of difficulty in learning to spell and read. In WolraichM. L.RouthD. (Eds.), Advances in developmental and behavioral pediatrics (Vol. 7, pp. 121–195). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
12.
EhriL. C. (1997). Learning to read and learning to spell are one and the same, almost. In PerfettiC.RiebenL.FayelM. (Eds.), Learning to spell: Research, theory, and practice across languages (pp. 237–270). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
13.
EhriL. C.WilceL. S. (1982). Recognition of spellings printed in lower and mixed case: Evidence of orthographic images. Journal of Reading Behavior, 14, 219–230.
14.
FreschM. J. (2003). A national survey of spelling instruction: Investigating teachers' beliefs and practices. Journal of Literacy Research, 35, 819–848.
15.
FrithU. (Ed.). (1980). Cognitive processes in spelling.New York: Academic Press.
16.
GatesA. I. (1937). List of spelling difficulties in 3,876 words.New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University.
17.
GentryJ. R. (1982). An analysis of developmental spelling in GYNS AT WRK. The Reading Teacher, 36, 192–200.
18.
GibsonE. J.LevinJ. (1975). The psychology of reading.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
19.
GoswamiU. (1988). Children's use of analogy in learning to spell. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6, 21–33.
20.
GunningT. G. (2001). Building words: A resource manual for teaching word analysis and spelling strategies.Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
21.
HendersonE. H. (1981). Learning to read and spell: The child's knowledge of words.DeKalb: Northern Illinois Press.
22.
HendersonE. H.BeersJ. W. (Eds.), (1980). Developmental and cognitive aspects of learning to spell: A reflection of word knowledge.Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
23.
KaufmanA. S.KaufmanN. L. (1985). The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement.Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
24.
KaufmanA. S.KaufmanN. L. (1998). The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement.Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
25.
KesslerB.TreimanR. (2003). Is English spelling chaotic? Misconceptions concerning its irregularity. Reading Psychology, 24, 267–289.
26.
MorrisP. E.HampsonP. J. (1983). Imagery and consciousness.New York: Academic Press.
27.
NationK.HulmeC. (1998). The role of analogy in spelling development. In HulmeC.JoshiR. M. (Eds.), Reading and spelling: Development and disorders (pp. 433–445). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
28.
PedhazurE. J. (1982). Multiple regression in behavioral research: Explanation and prediction (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
29.
PaivioA. (1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach.New York: Oxford University Press.
30.
PaivioA.YuilleJ.MadiganS. (1968). Concreteness, imagery, and meaningfulness values for 925 nouns. Journal of Experimental Psychology Monograph, 76, (1, Pt. 2).
31.
RasinskiT. V.PadakN. D. (2001). From phonics to fluency: Effective teaching of decoding and reading fluency in the elementary school.New York: Longman.
32.
RadebaughM. R. (1985). Children's perceptions of their spelling strategies. The Reading Teacher, 38, 532–536.
33.
RadakerL. (1963). The effect of visual imagery upon spelling performance. Journal of Educational Research, 56, 370–372.
34.
RamanI.BaluchB. (2001). Semantic effects as a function of reading skill in word naming of a transparent orthography. Reading and Writing, 14, 599–614.
35.
ReadC. (1975). Children's organization of speech sounds in English (NCTE Research Report No. 17). Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
36.
SadoskiM. (1983). An exploratory study of the relationships between reported imagery and the comprehension and recall of a story. Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 110–123.
37.
SadoskiM. (1985). The natural use of imagery in story comprehension and recall: Replication and extension. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 658–667.
38.
SadoskiM. (2003). The role of orthography in dual coding theory of reading. In JoshiR. M.LeongC. K.KaczarekB. L. (Eds.), Literacy acquisition: The role of phonology, orthography, and morphology (pp. 67–81). Amsterdam: IOS Press.
39.
SadoskiM. (in press). A dual coding view of vocabulary learning. Reading and Writing Quarterly..
40.
SadoskiM.PaivioA. (2001). Imagery and text: A dual coding theory of reading and writing.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
41.
SadoskiM.PaivioA. (2004). A dual coding theoretical model of reading. In RuddellR. B.UnrauN. J. (Eds.), Theortetical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1329–1362). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
42.
SadoskiM.PaivioA.GoetzE. T. (1991). A critique of schema theory in reading and dual coding alternative. Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 463–484.
43.
SamuelsS. J. (1994). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading, revisited. In RuddellR. B.RuddellM. R.SingerH. (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 816–837). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
44.
SattlerJ. M. (1989). Review of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement. In ConoleyJ. C.KramerJ. J. (Eds.). The tenth mental measurements yearbook (pp. 412–413). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
45.
SchlagalR. (1992). Patterns of orthographic development into the intermediate grades. In TempletonS.BearD. R. (Eds.), Development of orthographic knowledge and the foundations of literacy: A memorial Fetschrift for Edmund H. Henderson (pp. 31–52). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
46.
SearsN. C.JohnsonD. M. (1986). The effects of visual imagery on spelling performance and retention among elementary students. Journal of Educational Research, 79, 230–233.
47.
StageS. A.WagnerR. K. (1992). Development of young children's phonological and orthographic knowledge as revealed by their spellings. Developmental Psychology, 28, 287–296.
48.
StanovichK. E. (1991). Word recognition: Changing perspectives. In BarrR.KamilM. L.MosenthalP. B.PearsonP. D. (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. II, pp. 418–452). New York: Longman.
49.
StefflerD. J.VarnhagenC. K.FriesenC. K.TriemanR. (1998). There's more to children's spelling than the errors they make: Strategic and automatic processes for one-syllable words. Journal of Educational Psychology, 90, 492–505.
50.
StrainE.HerdmanC. M., (1999). Imageability effects in word naming: An individual differences analysis. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 347–359.
51.
StrainE.PattersonK.SeidenbergM. S. (1995). Semantic effects in single-word naming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 21, 1140–1154.
52.
StrainE.PattersonK.SeidenbergM. S. (2002). Theories of word naming interact with spelling-sound consistency. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 28, 207–214.
53.
TainturierM-J.RappB. (2001). The spelling process. In RappB. (Ed.), The handbook of cognitive neuropsychology: What deficits reveal about the human mind (pp. 263–289). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
54.
TempletonS. (1989). Tacit and explicit knowledge of derivational morphology: Foundations for a unified approach to spelling and vocabulary development in the intermediate grades and beyond. Reading Psychology, 10, 233–253.
55.
TempletonS. (2003). Spelling. In FloodJ.LappD.SquireJ. R.JensenJ. M. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (2nd ed., pp. 738–751). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
56.
TogliaM. P.BattigW. F. (1978). Handbook of semantic word norms.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
57.
TreimanR. (1993). Beginning to spell.New York: Oxford University Press.
58.
TreimanR. (1998). Beginning to spell in English. In HulmeC.JoshiR. M. (Eds.), Reading and spelling: Development and disorders (pp. 371–393). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
59.
VarnhagenC. V.BoechlerP. M.StefflerD. J. (1999). Phonological and orthographic influences on children's vowel spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 3, 363–379.
60.
VarnhagenC. K.McCallumM.BurstowM. (1997). Is children's spelling naturally stage-like?Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 9, 451–481.
61.
VenezkyR. L. (1999). The American way of spelling.New York: Guilford Press.
62.
WalkerB. S. (1974). Vividness of imagery and spelling errors. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 39, 823–825.
63.
WillsonV. L.RupleyW. H.RodriguezM.MergenS. (1999). The relationships among orthographic components of word identification and spelling for grades 1-6. Reading Research and Instruction, 39, 89–102.
64.
ZenoS.IversS.MillardR.DuvvuriR. (1995). The educator's word frequency guide.Brewster, NY: Touchstone Applied Science Associates.
