Arab World English Journal
AWEJ Volume.3 Number 2. June 2012 pp. 96 – 116
The Most Common Spelling Errors among Omani Learners
Kothar Talib Sulaiman Al Harrasi
Rustaq College of Applied Sciences,
Oman
Abstract:
Recently, there has been an increasing interest in error recognition among Arab learners. Spelling has captured many researchers’ and teachers’ attention. It can be of a great help or a barrier of developing and expressing ideas in writing (Cotterell, 1974). This paper reports a case study that is conducted in one of the classes in Omani second-cycle school for females. The aim of this study is to investigate the most common spelling errors patterns among Omanis. In an effort to explore spelling errors, the participants had a dictation test that combines both one syllable words and multi-syllable words. The errors found in this study are sorted into the categories suggested by Cook (1999). Then, they are analysed to explore the most common spelling mistakes made by learners. The reasons behind these errors are discussed with the support of an interview and correspondence with previous researches. Preliminary results indicate that substitution is the most common type of spelling errors. Such findings are consistent with previous researches (e.g. Al-Jabri, 2006 and Al-Hassan, 2006).
Keywords: phonetic language, omission error, substitution error, insertion or addition error, transposition error