By Shawna Petersen‐Brown & Kourtney R. Kromminga
Original article: LINK
Learning to spell words is really important for students. When students learn to spell better, it also helps them become better at reading and writing.
This new study looked at 81 different research papers to see how effective spelling lessons are. They found that overall, teaching spelling in different ways does make a difference, but it’s not a huge improvement. However, when they looked at studies that focused on teaching interventions one-on-one, the improvement was better.
The study also looked at how spelling lessons were taught and found that some methods were more effective than others.
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When children can spell well, they can write more fluently and focus on what they’re trying to say rather than worrying about how to spell every single word.
Learning to spell also helps them become a better reader. When pupils understand how letters make different sounds and how words are put together, it’s easier to read.
When children are just starting to learn to spell, they need to understand how sounds and letters work together. They start by recognising the sounds in words, matching them to letters, and then writing them down. This is called encoding. To learn more about how to teach children to encode, see our book Getting Children Up And Running As Writers.
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Many studies found that teaching spelling in a clear, direct way has a positive impact on students’ ability to spell and read. Some of these studies have shown that when spelling is taught directly, using methods like phonics (matching sounds to letters), morphology (studying word structures), and orthography (learning spelling rules), students improve their spelling skills significantly. However, just memorising lists of words doesn’t seem to work as well.
The research also suggests that teaching spelling helps students not only with spelling but also with reading. When students learn to spell, they also become better readers. And when reading skills improve, spelling skills tend to get better too.
Interestingly, the studies found that spelling instruction works best when it focuses on specific words that are taught directly, rather than expecting students to just pick up spelling skills indirectly through reading and writing.
Group vs personalised instruction
The researchers used two types of studies: group studies (where a whole class gets the same instruction) and single-case studies (where each student gets personalised instruction).
In the group studies, they found a small improvement in spelling skills overall (+0.3). But in the single-case studies, where each student’s progress was closely tracked, they found a moderate improvement (+0.57). This suggests that personalised instruction might be more effective for some students.
Best practice instruction
The researchers looked at how different teaching methods affect children’s spelling skills. They found that most studies used several effective strategies, like:
- Focusing on teaching encoding strategies
- Giving students lists of words to practice
- Giving them lots of chances to practice
- Giving children feedback right away
- Teaching students to proof-read for spellings
Important points
The researchers found that most studies measured how well students did on words they were taught in the lessons, rather than on words they hadn’t been specifically taught. And while some studies looked at whether the effects of the lessons lasted over time, most only looked at immediate effects.
Conclusion
This study aimed to understand how effective spelling lessons are and what factors influence their effectiveness.
- Effectiveness of Spelling Instruction: They found that overall, spelling lessons had a small effect in regular classroom studies (+0.3) and a moderate effect in studies where each student received personalised instruction (+0.57).
- Inclusion of Best Practices: Many studies included effective strategies like giving immediate feedback and emphasising sounds and letters. Previous research suggested that formal, systematic instruction is more effective than memorisation, which was confirmed here.
Overall, while spelling lessons do have a positive impact, there’s room for improvement in how they’re implemented and studied. More research is needed to refine the best practices for spelling instruction and to explore how to promote generalisation of spelling skills beyond the specific words taught in the lessons.