Discusses studies of dyslexia in German- and English-speaking children. Argues that deficits in phoneme awareness are only evident in the early stages of reading acquisition, whereas rapid naming and phonological memory deficits are more persistent in dyslexic children. (Author/VWL)

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) freshman students at the College of Languages and Translation received direct instruction in adjective-forming suffixes, then they took an immediate and a delayed test. Error analysis showed that 36% of the responses were left blank or the subjects duplicated the stimulus word. In 32% they mismatched the word…

In three experiments, subjects read passages and circled misspelling in them. Results support the unitization hypothesis that common words are normally read in units larger than letters but are read in letter units when misspelled. (Author/CP)

Shows how error pattern analysis can be helpful with children learning to spell. (FL)

Characteristics of spelling development and spelling error patterns were examined in 100 schoolchildren (ages 7 to 15) previously identified as dyslexic with specific phonological weaknesses. Comparison of subgroups indicated that better spellers are also better readers and that measures of phonemic segmenting and manipulation make independent…

This study investigated the effects of the Direct Instruction writing program, "Expressive Writing" (Engelmann & Silbert, 1983), for high school students with learning disabilities (LD). The study used a multiple probe design across participants and results indicate the effectiveness of "Expressive Writing" in improving the writing skills of high…

A study sought to find the most common errors of second grade story-writers. Subjects, 96 second graders from 5 classes, wrote 3 stories each without any help from their teachers on topics chosen by the teachers ("The Funniest Thing that Ever Happened to Me,""Winter," and "My Special Holiday"). Stories were collected…

Writing samples of 50 learning disabled college students were analyzed for fluency and errors of 14 types: omission of words and/or letters, noun plurals, syntax, subject-verb agreement, verb forms and tense, pronoun reference, shifts in person, fused or spliced sentences, fragments, punctuation, capitalization, usage, spelling, and apostrophe…

A typical school spelling task is analyzed in terms of an information processing model of spelling performance. (Author)

The paper stresses the importance of informal assessment of spelling, describing both quantitative and qualitative implications. Stages of word knowledge are reviewed and examples of student errors are cited to illustrate needed instruction. (CL)

The concept of error, or mistake, is a sensitive and crucial issue in both second language learning and second language instruction. Error can play a constructive role in learning and, under some conditions, in teaching, and avoidance of error may be less productive than confrontation with it. (MSE)

Recent research has worked out a system for French orthography which is useful in teaching foreign learners, especially as regards errors due to confusing similar words and to native language interference. Grammar-related errors are discussed, with suggestions for combating them. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Statistics on errors in written French by students in first- and second-year language courses. (DD)

The accuracy of deaf adults' letter report was greater for real and nonsense words than for pseudowords, and error analysis shows deaf adults tend to produce orthographically regular responses. These findings indicate clearly the use of orthographic structure in word recognition. (MSE)

Examines misspellings made by English speakers writing in English and German, concluding that English spelling is almost seven times more difficult than German. Classifies errors and discusses reasons for them. Relates the misspellings to the redundant letters removed in "Cut Spelng" to show how far such a technique for simplifying…