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



Author(s)

Ahmed Awad Amin Mahmoud

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DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2015.03.005

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.

common spelling errors, Arab Palestinian learners, 6-9 graders