SPELLING AS A CORRELATE OF READING ABILITY IN UNDERPREPARED COLLEGE FRESHMEN: MEASURES AND ERROR TYPES (WRITING)

Support facilities, such as reading/writing labs and tutorial services, have been created in many universities to diagnose and remediate on a one-to-one basis those language deficiencies in reception and production which handicap learners' progress in all classes, but most especially the progress of underprepared college freshmen in basic skills English classes. Poor spelling, among good and poor readers alike, persists as an impediment to clear discourse production by college students. Previous studies indicate considerable lack of concurrence among researchers with regard to the relationships between reading and writing, between reading and spelling, and even with regard to strategies for teaching spelling and analyzing spelling errors.; In an attempt to improve evaluation procedures at the college-entry level and to examine spelling application in good and poor readers, for planning of remedial programs by support facilities, this study was conducted to determine the relationships between the reading scores and spelling production of underprepared college freshmen. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test, the multiple-choice spelling section of the California Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), and the spelling dictation section of the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) were administered to 71 subjects in four basic skills English classes at the University of Albuquerque. All Subjects wrote an essay on a controlled topic (IPE). The essays were analyzed for number of spelling errors and spelling error types: orthographic or phonological.; Multiple regression analyses were computed to determine the relationships between vocabulary, comprehension, and total reading scores on the Nelson-Denny and scores of the three measures of spelling ability: CTBS, WRAT, and IPE. All of the observed relationships were significant. A Pearson Product Moment correlation computation revealed that there were significant correlations among the three measures of spelling ability. Multiple regression analyses, post hoc Scheffe tests, and post hoc t tests revealed that (1) there were significant relationships between total reading score and the number of orthographic and phonological errors produced, (2) capable readers made significantly fewer orthographic errors than adequate or disabled readers and significantly fewer phonological errors than disabled readers, and (3) capable and adequate readers made significantly fewer phonological errors than orthographic errors. There were no significant differences in the types of errors made by disabled readers.