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Spelling difficulties faced by Arab learners of English as a foreign language
Alenazi, Oudah S1.
The field of second language acquisition has acknowledged the importance of good
spelling for second language (L2) learners. Learning to spell, in fact, is not a
straightforward process rather it involves numerous mental processes. Proponents of this
field argue that learning English spelling entails the correct connection of the phonemes
and graphemes. The former refers to the spoken sounds and the latter refers to the written
symbols. Spelling, also, reflects to a large extent the actual level of people’s word
knowledge and it can be used to measure the language achievements of L2 users.
Nevertheless, the irregular system of English causes different kinds of problems and
difficulties for roughly all learners of English including native speakers. This paper aims
to highlight the difficulties that Arab learners of English encounter when spelling English
words. It describes some spelling approaches such as whole word approach, phonics
approach, invented spelling approach, traditional approach and morphemic approach.
Then, it considers the different kinds of spelling errors often made by Arab learners of
English. It concludes with some suggestions for helping Arab learners of English improve
their spelling skills.
Affiliation:
- King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
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MyJurnal (2021) |
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Immediacy Index
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