Children's Spelling

Question 1

What are the main types of spelling errors?

Answer 1

1. Insertion
2. Substitution
3. Omission
4. Transposition
5. Phonetic spelling
6. Overgenerlisation of spelling rules
7. Salient sounds

Question 2

What is insertion?

Answer 2

The error consists in the insertion of a single letter

Question 3

Give an example of insertion

Answer 3

eg. off for of

Question 4

What is substitution?

Answer 4

The replacement of a single letter by another single letter, usually with vowels

Question 5

Give an example of substitution

Answer 5

eg. definate for definite

Question 6

What is omission?

Answer 6

The omission of a single letter

Question 7

Give an example of omission

Answer 7

eg. ocurring for occurring

Question 8

What is transposition?

Answer 8

The misordering of two adjacent letters

Question 9

Give an example of transposition

Answer 9

eg. lable for label

Question 10

What is phonetic spelling?

Answer 10

Using phonology to spell the words

Question 11

Give an example of phonetic spelling

Answer 11

eg. fink for think

Question 12

What is overgenerlisation in spelling?

Answer 12

Overgenerlising common rules of spelling

Question 13

Give an example of overgenerlisation in spelling

Answer 13

eg. publick for public, overgenerlising the rule that words don’t end in ‘c’ but ends in ‘ck’

Question 14

What is using salient sounds to spell?

Answer 14

Using only the sounds that are most noticeable and omitting sounds that are silent or hard to hear.

Question 15

Give an example of salient spelling.

Answer 15

eg. sudnly for suddenly

Question 16

Why is English spelling so problematic? Give an example of each problem

Answer 16

• A single phoneme is represented by two graphemes (diagraph)
  eg. ‘th’, ‘ck’ represent one phoneme
• Different graphemes can represent the same phoneme
  e.g ‘ff’, ‘gh’, ‘f’, ‘ph’ all represent the phoneme /f/
• Some graphemes can represent many phonemes
  eg. careful, rat, ball: the grapheme <a> represents different phonemes</a>
• Variety of pronounciation, but only one spelling is acceptable
  ‘bath’ has multiple pronounciations, but can only be spelt as ‘bath’

Question 17

What is a digraph?

Answer 17

A combination of two letters representing one sound, as in <ph> and <ey>.</ey></ph>

Question 18

Orthography - The ________ of ________ a language

Answer 18

conventions, writing

Question 19

Give examples of orthography

Answer 19

eg. spelling, punctuation, capitalisation

Question 20

Use ‘orthography’ in a sentence

Answer 20

The child understands the conventions of orthography, etc

Question 21

Use ‘orthographic system’ in a sentence

Answer 21

The child understands the English orthographic system