Date of Award
8-2013
Culminating Project Type
Thesis
Degree Name
English: Teaching English as a Second Language: M.A.
Department
English
College
College of Liberal Arts
First Advisor
John Madden
Second Advisor
James Robinson
Third Advisor
Isolde Mueller
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Keywords and Subject Headings
spelling error analysis, Arabic-L1 ESL learners
Abstract
There exists in the SLA field a vast amount of anecdotal evidence to the phenomenon of word-form challenges among Arabic-LI ESL learners. However, few studies examine word-form production in this population. This study set out to help fill this gap in the literature by providing a taxonomy of Arabic-LI word-form production errors and to contextualize these errors through participant interviews.
In this study, 751 spelling errors from 72 writing samples were analyzed and coded using Bebout' s (1985) system. These writing samples came from 43 Arabic-L1, Saudi Arabian male students enrolled in university-level ESL courses. In addition, 10 Arabic-LI , Saudi Arabian male students enrolled in university-level ESL courses separate from those providing writing samples were interviewed. This study found that 478 of the total 751 errors were contained in vowel-specific categories. These vowel errors were concentrated in three conditions: schwa errors of omission, silent errors, and errors involving the phonemes /i/, /I/, and /ε/. Two major themes developed regarding participant beliefs and motivation about English spelling: first, demotivational experiences (both with the Ll and L2), and second, the predominance of instrumental versus integrative motivation attested to by the participants.
Despite limitations to the study, the research presented here carries with it important pedagogical implications. First, to address the predominance of vowel spelling errors, ESL courses should contain spelling rule teaching, sight word lists, and extensive reading. Second, participants in the interviews were significantly demotivated by the opaque nature of English orthography. ESL practitioners can and should do more to improve this impression of chaos that the participants attested to.
Recommended Citation
Packer, Claire B., "Textual Analysis of Arabic-L1 ESL Learners' Spelling Errors: The Effects of Learner Beliefs and Motivation" (2013). Culminating Projects in TESL. 73.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/tesl_etds/73
