Spelling?A task analysis

Abstract

This paper analyzes a typical school spelling task in terms of an information processing model of spelling performance~ It explores the nature of the speller's internal representation of the word to be spelled, the information he must have in memory about the target word, and the organization of the processes available to use that information to produce a spelling and verify its accuracy. Sources of error in the execution of the task, with examples of errors from children's spelling tests, are discussed in terms of the model. Ways in which the model may be adapted to explain performance on other kinds of spelling tasks and some implications for instruction are suggested. A partially implemented computer simulation of the spelling process is described.

Spelling Acquisition; Effects of Pronouncing Words on Memory for Their Spellings

“…According to the information processing model proposed by Simon and Simon (1973), and Simon (1976), spellers acquire the following kinds of spelling information: (1) the alphabet (letter shapes, names, and writing routines); (2) phoneme-grapheme relations; (3) a word store comprised of the spellings of specific words (including letters and other kinds of visual information acquired from reading experiences, motor information acquired from writing experiences, flags to note exceptional spelling patterns); and (4) various orthographic rules, general spelling patterns and mnemonics applying to classes of words (e.g., syntactic endings such as -ed, -ing). The set of 200 spelling rules identified by Hanna, Hanna, Hodges, and Rudorf (1966) details possible contents of the phoneme-grapheme store.…”

Good Readers Who Spell Poorly: What's the Problem?

“…The errors of GRIPS are, by and large, phonologically plausible (Burden, 1990;Frith, 1980;Jorm, 1983). Simon (1976) suggests that " ...The visual representation in memory may be incomplete or incorrect" (p. 297). Sloboda (1980) also says that "Presumably, poor spellers will image incorrectly spelled words" (p. 245).…”

“…Whether or not the VOl is accessed early in the spelling process or as a check later on, its accuracy determines the proficiency of the speller. When we write a word and it does not "look right" , we are matching it to our VOL When we write several versions of the suspect word we are consulting our VOL As Simon (1976) state, The speller's most valuable resource both for proofreading in general and for checking his own productions, is his vast reading recognition vocabulary: it is often possible to choose among alternative spellings or to recognize whether or not a spelling is correct even though one had not initially been sure he produced one (p. 293).…”

Information Processing Approaches to Studying Spelling Deficiencies

“…Their point is that researchers should not be concerned with creating tests, even theoretically derived tests, to study tasks like spelling until explicit models of these tasks can be specified adequately. With regard to spelling, Farnham-Diggory and Nelson have suggested that, aside from one detailed spelling model (Simon, 1976), we have available for A number of general, underlying themes are common to most information processing approaches to the study of individual differences and learning problems (Hall, 1980). One such theme is a concern to distinguish an instructionally malleable "process" from a relatively intractable "structure."…”