EFL University Students’ Spelling Abilities and their Spelling Learning Strategies

Abstract

Spelling, as a basic language skill, has become a serious challenge for many EFL learners, includingeven advanced ones. The current study aimed at exploring the spelling abilities of EFL university students majoring in English and their use of spelling learning strategies. More specifically, it aimed at investigating the levels of the students’ spelling abilities, their awareness of their spelling abilities, the importance assigned to spelling/spelling practice and their use of spelling learning strategies. In order to achieve these aims and collect the needed data, a dictation test and a questionnaire were designed and administrated to 60 students out of 274 second year students at the department of English, Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel University. The findings of the study revealed that the students are experiencing difficulties in spelling English words to a large extent as most of the students’ performance in the test was poor or very poor. The findings also indicated that despite the fact that most of the students are aware of their spelling ability, a significant number of poor spellers overestimated their ability. Another striking finding is that the students with the different levels of spelling ability have positive perceptions of spelling and shared most of the spelling practices. Most importantly, the results revealed differences in strategy use among the students: those who are better spellers use less but more effective strategies than poor spellers. Based on the results of the study, some pedagogical recommendations for teachers and students were suggested.