Investigating Spelling Errors among Indonesian EFL Secondary School Students
Abstract
In the Indonesian context, students who learn English face some problems in spelling words. They often make spelling errors in essay writing. This study aims to explore and categorize spelling errors made by Indonesian secondary school students and the primary sources contributing the errors based on Error Analysis (EA) framework. The participants consisted of 38 students chosen from a secondary school in Lampung, Indonesia. The data were obtained from documentation of student’s written essays, and responses in the questionnaire analyzed based on Carney’s (1997) categories of spelling error and Richards’s (1980) types of error sources. The findings showed that errors under categories of variant, slip, and the split was the most frequently found as the students were mistaken in choosing among the competing letters and sounds and also careless with the correct spelling. Besides, the major error sources were associated with the Indonesian (L1) interference when students transferred their mother tongue to the English (L2) spelling and the inconsistency between English spelling and sounds. The study implies that the learners’ better understanding of L1 and L2’s different systems of spelling as well as pronunciation rules will help them enhance their spelling performance. It is, therefore, suggested that the teachers give students more practice to drill and to pronounce the frequently misspelled words simultaneously to develop their spelling accuracy.
References
Al-Jarf, R. (2010). Spelling error corpora in EFL. Sino-US English Teaching. 7(1), 6-15.
Al-Qudat, A. (2017). Spelling errors in English writing committed by English-major students at BAU. Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics. 17, 43-47.
Al-Sobhi, B.M.S., Rashid, S.M., Abdullah, A.N., & Darmi, R. (2017). Arab ESL Secondary School Students’ Spelling Errors. International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies. 5(3), 16-23.
Alhaisoni, E.M., Al-Zuoud, K.M, & Gaudel, D.R. (2015). Analysis of Spelling Errors of Beginner Learners of English in the English Foreign Language Context in Saudi Arabia. English Language Teaching. 8(3), 185-192.
Altamimi, D., & Rashid, R. A. (2019). Spelling Problems and Causes among Saudi English Language Undergraduate. Arab World English Journal. 10(3), 179-191. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.12.
Alwasilah, C. (2013). Policy on Foreign Language Education in Indonesia. International Journal of Education. 7(1), 1-19. doi:https://doi.org/10.17509/ije.v7i1.5302.
Andi-Pallawa, B. & Alam, A. F. A. (2013). A Comparative Analysis between English and Indonesian Phonological Systems. International Journal of English Language Education. 1(3), 103-129. doi: 10.5296/ijele.v1i3.3892.
Banfi, C., Kemény, F., Gangl, M., Schulte-Körne, G., Moll, K., & Landerl, K. (2017). Visuo- Spatial Cueing in Children with Differential Reading and Spelling Profiles. PLoS ONE. 12(7), 1-20.
Botley, S., Hakim, F. & Dillah, D. (2007). Investigating Spelling Errors in a Malaysian Learner Corpus. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research. 3(1), 74-93.
Budiharto, R. A. (2018). Native language interference on target language writings of Indonesian EFL students: An Exploratory case study. Indonesian EFL Journal. 5(1), 107-116. doi: 10.25134/ieflj.v5i1.1630.
Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th edition). New York: Pearson Education.
Carney, E. 1997. English Spelling. London: Routledge
Chaira, S. (2015). Interference of First Language in Pronunciation of English Segmental Sounds. English Education Journal (EEJ). 6(4), 469-483.
Chiru, C., Cojocaru, V., Rebedea, T., & Trausan-Matu, S. (2010). Malapropisms Detection and Correction using a Paronyms Dictionary, a Search Engine and WordNet. In J. A. M. Cordeiro, M. Virvou & B. Shishkov (Eds.), Fifth International Conference on Software and Data Technologies (ICSOFT 2010). 2, 364-373.
Cook, V. (2004). The spelling of the regular past tense in English: Implications for lexical spelling and dual process models. Gothenburg Studies in English. 88, 59-68.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dada, E. M. (2015) Spelling errors: Causes, Influence on Students’ performance in English Language essay Writing and strategies of correction them. International Journal of Case Studies. 4(8), 66-70.
Dadzie, G., & Bosiwah, L. (2015). Spelling Errors Among Junior High School Students in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Journal of Language, Linguistics and Literature American Institute of Science, 1(3), 46-54.
Dulay, H., Burt, M. & Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two. Oxford University Press.
Dweikat, K.A.J. & Aqel, F.M. (2017). A Longitudinal Analysis Study of Writing Errors Made by EFL Students at Al-Quds Open University (QOU) the Case of Language Use Course. British Journal of Education. 5 (13), 127-145.
Ellis, R. (2008). The Study of Second Language Acquisition (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. & Barkhuizen, G. (2005). Analyzing Learner Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fauziati, E. (2009). Reading on Applied Linguistics: A handbook for language teacher and teacher-researcher. Surakarta: Era Pustaka Utama.
Fauziati, E. (2014). Contrastive Analysis, Transfer Analysis, Error Analysis, And Interlanguage: Four Concepts One Goal. Ahmad Dahlan Journal of English Studies (ADJES). 1(2), 9-21.
Gass, S. & Selinker, L. & (2008). Second language acquisition: An introductory course (3rd edition). New York: Taylor & Francis.
Hameed, P. F. M. (2016). A Study of the Spelling Errors committed by Students of English in Saudi Arabia: Exploration and Remedial Measures. Advances in Language and Literacy Studies. 7(1), 203-207.
Hikmah, Siti. (2017). Spelling error analysis in students’ writing at tenth grade in MAN 1 Boyolali in the academic year of 2016/2017. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. IAIN Surakarta, Surakarta, Indonesia.
Hirst, G., & St-Onge, D. (1998). Lexical chains as representations of context for the detection and correction of malapropisms. WordNet: An electronic lexical database. 305, 305-332.
Hirst, G. & Budanitsky, A. (2005). Correcting real-word spelling errors by restoring lexical cohesion. Natural Language Engineering, 11(1), 87-111. doi:10.1017/S1351324904003560.
Hong, A. L., Rahim, H. A., Hua, T. K., & Salehuddin, K. (2011). Collocations in Malaysian English learners’ writing: A corpus-based error analysis. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®. 17 (Special issue), 31-44.
Kocatepe, M. (2017). Female Arab EFL Students Learning Autonomously Beyond the Language Classroom. English Language Teaching. 10(5), 104-126.
Krish, P., & May, O. C. (2020). A Case Study of L1 Interference in Speech Acts among Chinese L2 Students. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 26(1), 106-118.
Kuiper, K. & Allan, W. (2004). An Introduction to English Language: Word, Sound and Sentence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Leacock, C., Chodorow, M., Gamon, M., & Tetreault, J. (2010).
Automated grammatical error detection for language learners. Synthesis lectures on human language technologies. 3(1), 1-134.
Littlewood, W. (2008). Foreign language teaching methods: From past prescriptions to present principles. Foreign language teaching in schools. 31(4), 1-13.
Liu, Y. (2015). Spelling errors analysis in college English writing. Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 5(8), 1628-1634.
Lodico, M., Spaulding, D. & Voegtle, K. (2010). Methods in Educational Research: From Theory to Practice (2nd edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Maxwell, J. A. (2010). Using numbers in qualitative research. Qualitative inquiry. 16(6), 475-482.
Muhassin, M. (2016). Teachers’ Communicative Activities in Teaching English as A Foreign Language (Tefl): A Study at Sman 9 Bandar Lampung. Humaniora, 7(4), 485-492.
Muhassin, M., Hayrunnisa, N. R., & Pradana, S. A. (2019). Students' Grammatical Error in Using Present Tense. English Education: Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris, 12(2), 1-24.
Naruemon, D. (2012). Causes of English spelling errors made by Thai foreign language learners. ARECLS. 10, 22-43.
Nurchalimah. (2019). An Analysis of spelling error in students’writing recount text at tenth grade students of MA al Muayyad Surakarta in academic year of 2018/2019. Undergraduate thesis. IAIN Surakarta, Indonesia.
Perry, F. L. (2011). Research in applied linguistics: Becoming a discerning consumer. New York: Routledge.
Peters, M. L. (2013). Spelling Caught or Taught: A New Look. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul plc.
Richards, J. C. (1980). Second language acquisition: Error analysis. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 1, 91-107.
Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. (2010). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics (4th editon). London: Pearson Education Limited.
Risnati. (2016). An error analysis on students’ spelling in writing at SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. Undergraduate thesis. Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Samuddin, K. M., & Krish, P. (2018). English Orthographic Depth among Malay Learners at a Primary School. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®. 24(1), 56-68.
Sari, I. R. (2015). Common Errors in Students’ Spelling on the Required Words for the Seventh Graders. Educate, 4(2), 35-43.
Sasmiasih, E. (2014). Error Analysis on the Students Writing of Descriptive Text (A Case Study at Second Grade Students of SMP PGRI 2 Ciputat). Undergraduate thesis. UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, Indonesia.
Senowarsito & Ardini, S. N. (2019). Phonological Fossilisation of EFL Learners: The Interference of Phonological and Orthographic System of L1 Javanese. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®. 25(2), 74-85.
Sénéchal, M., Gingras, M., & L’Heureux, L. (2016). Modeling Spelling Acquisition: The Effect of Orthographic Regularities on Silent-Letter Representations. Scientific Studies of Reading. 20(2), 155-162.
Setiyadi, A. (2016). How Successful Learners Employ Learning Strategies in an EFL Setting in the Indonesian Context. English Language Teaching. 9(8), 28-38.
Sugiyono. (2013). Metode Penelitian Kuantitatif, Kualitatif dan R & D. Bandung: CV. Alfabeta.
Sulistiyo, U. (2016). Learning English as A Foreign Language in An Indonesian University: A Study of Non-English Department Students’ Preferred Activities Inside and Outside the Classroom. Indonesian Journal of English Teaching. 5(1), 1-26.
Summaria, S. (2011). Error Analysis of the Written Essays of Pakistani Undergraduate Students: A Case Study. Asian Transaction on Basic & Applied Sciences (ATBAS). 1(3), 29-51.
Ting, S.H., Mahadhir, M., & Chang, S.L. (2010). Grammatical Errors in Spoken English of University Students in Oral Communication Course. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 10(1), 53-70.
Wahyuni, D., Mukhaiyar & Syarif, H. (2013). Fossilized Spelling Errors in Paragraph Writing Committed by the English Department Students at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education of Bung Hatta University. English Language Teaching (ELT). 1(1), 65-78.
Warda, R. (2005) Research-based Tutoring of English Spelling. Retrieved on June 6, 2020 from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED492137.
Yasin, Z. M., & Ahamad Shah, M. I. (2019). The Interactive Roles of Lexical Knowledge and Reading Strategies on Reading Comprehension Performance. Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS). 4(1), 273-299. https://doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol4iss1pp273-299.
DOI: 10.24042/ee-jtbi.v13i2.7699
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
