The Strategic Spelling Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities: The Results of Two Studies

Journal of Instructional Psychology,  March, 2000  by Craig Darch,  Soobang Kim,  Susan Johnson,  Hollis James

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Data Analysis

In analyzing individual questions, students' responses were divided into idea units. An idea unit was defined as an unit of comments during which the student described spelling strategy. Our goal was to examine the students with learning disabilities' use of spelling 11 strategies as well as the perceptions of spelling instruction they received. Verbal descriptions of spelling strategies were divided into units for each spelling task. We read the data record of each student several times as different kinds of spelling strategies emerged. We developed and refined a coding system to categorize the kinds of spelling strategies described in the units.

This process yielded four major categories: (1) rule-based, (2) multiple, (3) resource-based, and (4) brute force. Table 2 presents the four categories along with their definition and examples of some of the students' responses to interview questions. Using the transcribed data from the structured and activity-based interviews, we documented the number of times students stated that they used any of the four spelling strategies (e.g., rule-based, multiple, resource-based, and brute force).

Table 2 Spelling Strategy Categories

Strategies

Rule-based
  Comments made that referenced appropriate
  rule-based strategies.

Multiple
  Comments made indicating the use of more
  than one strategy during spelling.

Resource-based
  Indications of the use of prior learning
  experience.

Brute Force
  Reports of less sophisticated procedures
  and recall information. These methods
  indicate tenacity rather than the use of
  systematic strategies.

Examples of Students' Comments
  "I thought of the letter in the word and tried
  to spell it.
  "If you don't know the word, you sound it
  out."

  "I tried to look for other words like the one
  I thought hard."

  "I would get a piece of paper, and ask
  teacher to write down the word I didn't
  know."

  "I keep on trying. I keep thinking about the
  word. Sometimes I guess if I don't know."
  "I just spelled it and did the best I could."

Results and Discussion

The results of this study provide a framework for understanding how students with learning disabilities attempt to spell words. These finding are consistent with other content instruction research (e.g., Simmons, Kameenui, & Darch, 1988; Rabren & Darch, 1996) which shows that students with learning disabilities often fail to use appropriate strategies.

Reported Use of Spelling Strategies: Activity-Based and Structured Interviews

While one of the students discussed using a rule based strategy, almost all of the other comments students made regarding how they attempted to spell words and how they tried to correct misspelled words showed that they used inappropriate strategies almost exclusively. Jean, one of our female subjects almost always used multiple strategies. For example, when asked how she tried to spell words she did not know, she responded "I tried to look for other words like that one and thought hard." Most of the student comments about how they attempted to spell unknown words were categorized as "brute force" strategies. As can be noted from the sample comments from Table 2, students who used the brute force strategy often became impatient during the spelling and writing activities. In fact, we noticed that three of the students who used the brute force strategy almost often showed high levels of frustration while engaged in the writing activities. When we probed one student on how they tried to respell a word if their first strategy was not effective, one student replied, "I guess I'll just stop, I probably won't get it right anyway."