Date of Award

4-1983

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Education

First Advisor

Jeanne Donovan

Second Advisor

Gene Henderson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to present data concerning the relationship between 8 factors and spelling achievement. The 8 factors considered in this study were: visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, knowledge of phonics, reading comprehension, student attitude, sex, socioeconomic status, and handwriting.

There were 20 good spellers and 20 poor spellers chosen from the sixth grade students attending Hardin Middle School, St. Charles, Missouri. The commercial tests and measurements administered were: Spelling Subtest, Stanford Achievement Test; Test of Visual Motor Integration; Test of Auditory Discrimination; Word Attack Subtest, Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests; and Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. Other informal measurements included: handwriting samples, attitude questionnaire, free lunch criteria, and sex differences.

When the results of the tests and measurements were correlated individually with spelling achievement, the five factors found to have significance -were: visual discrimination (. 43) , knowledge of phonics (. 74), and handwriting (. 46). The three factors that were not found to have significance -were: auditory discrimination ( . 26) , sex ( . 21) , and socioeconomic status ( . 26).

Five factors (visual discrimination, knowledge of phonics, reading comprehension, auditory discrimination, and student attitude) were correlated with spelling achievement using a Multiple Linear Regression correlation. When the scores of all 40 students were used, knowledge of phonics and reading comprehension were the two factors that contributed most to the correlations. When the scores of the 20 poor spellers were used, knowledge of phonics contributed most to the correlations. When the scores of the 20 good spellers were used, visual discrimination contributed most to the correlations.

A need for future research was suggested to clarify the influence the following factors have upon spelling achievement: knowledge of phonics, student attitude, visual discrimination, and socioeconomic status. Also, a similar study with a larger sample size and additional factors could be carried out. Some additional factors which could be considered are visual memory, IQ, and knowledge of word meaning.

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