T1 112009128 Full text

SPELLING ERRORS MADE BY ELEMENTARY STUDENTS IN
GROUP WORK
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Novince Fatima Puspitaria
112009128

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

SPELLING ERRORS MADE BY ELEMENTARY STUDENTS IN
GROUP WORK
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Novince Fatima Puspitaria
112009128

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
i

SPELLING ERRORS MADE BY ELEMENTARY STUDENTS IN
GROUP WORK

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Novince Fatima Puspitaria
112009128

Approved by:

ii

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

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university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material
previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is
made in the text.

Copyright@ 2013. Novince Fatima Puspitaria and Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M.A.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means
without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English
Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University,

Salatiga.

Novince Fatima Puspitaria:

iii

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: Language and Literature

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: Undergraduate Thesis

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iv

SPELLING ERRORS MADE BY ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
IN GROUP WORK
Novince Fatima Puspitaria
ABSTRACT
English has become international language, so it is important for
people to learn English in order to be able to communicate with people
around the world. People believe that learning English since early age
will give benefits in language acquisition. For English as Foreign
Language (EFL) especially young learners, spelling is one of the
problems that might occur in acquiring a new language. Based on this
fact, this study aimed to describe the kinds of spelling errors made by
elementary school students in group work. There were one hundred six
(106) elementary school students of SD Negeri Kumpulrejo 02
Salatiga involved in this study. The data for this descriptive study were
collected through ten classroom observations and students’ written
exercises. The analysis of the data showed that most spelling errors
made by students could be classified into intralingual errors (L2based). There were three kinds of intralingual errors that could be

found in this study. They were sound-based errors, over-generalization
of spelling rules, and anomalous misspelling that there is more than
one error that happened in the same word.
Key words: young learners, spelling errors, intralingual errors

INTRODUCTION
Nowadays people become more concerned to learn English since it
becomes international language. People believe by mastering foreign language,
especially English, it may help them to have better lives socially, academically,
and professionally (Sarigoz, 2012). Acquiring English since early age will give
better result compared to adult learners. As Lenneberg (1960) states in Gordon
(2007) Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) gives more benefits because
children have language instinct that is an innate ability for language learning.
1

However, the major challenge for beginning readers and spellers of ESL
including EFL is how they deal with written language (van Hell et al., 2003).
Learning to write will also include learning to spell the word in written language.
For young learners, spelling is one of the problems that they may encounter while
learning English. In general, most alphabetic orthographies, the written symbols

represent systematic phonemes and other sub-lexical segments such as onsets and
rimes (Leong, 2009), spellings are more difficult than reading for young learners.
The reason is because there is lower consistency of sound to spelling rather than
spelling to sound (Bosman & Van Orden, 1991, in van Hell et al., 2003).
Based on my previous experience when I did mini observation in 2012
located in SD Negeri Kumpulrejo 02 for my Teaching English for Young
Learners (TEYL) class, in three weeks of observation I found out that some
students had difficulties in spelling some words in English. The second graders of
elementary school who worked in groups had some spelling problems in writing
new vocabulary. Even though the teacher asked them to work in groups where
they could help one another to write the correct spellings, still some students
could not figure them out. They tended to keep silent instead of asking other
group members. Some students approached their teacher to help them write the
correct spelling since English was a difficult subject for them.
However, every language has its characteristics. They may differ in
grammatical forms, vocabulary, pronunciations and also spellings. Therefore, as
EFL students try to learn new language, there must be some errors, especially in
spelling, they make during the learning activity. In a learning process, finding
2

learners’ spelling errors is an evidence of a process of learning. Error has played
an important role in the study of language acquisition (Lengo, 1995). Here, Lengo
emphasized that people would learn from errors that they had made. Lennon
(1991) in Maicusi (2000) referred to errors as deviant forms of language produced
by learners. Thus, identifying L2 learners’ errors is good to find how well learners
know and learn the language as it is one of learners’ performance evidence in a
class. By knowing learners’ performances, we can see their comprehension, even
though their competences may not be easy to examine.
Based on those reasons, this study was conducted to find out the spelling
problems that elementary students committed in group work. While conducting
the study, there might be other facts discovered during the study about elementary
students’ spelling problems. Therefore, the research question was, “What kinds of
spelling errors are made by elementary students in group work?” The aim of this
study was to describe the kinds of written spelling errors the elementary students
made in group work.
Within this study, it will give not only information but also knowledge
about what kinds of spelling errors committed by students of elementary school
level in group work. Also, there may be some information of students’ behaviors
in group work. So, the teacher can be more aware about the spelling errors made
through group work. The result of this study may suggest further study to discover

some ways to help students in their spelling problems during group work
activities.

3

LITERATURE REVIEW
Since English becomes international language which plays an important
role in globalization, people nowadays concern to have English proficiency. They
send their children since early age to learn English. The major challenge for
young learners is how they deal with written language including spelling. Spelling
is a difficult task for many elementary school students especially EFL learners
(Anastasiou, 2011) since they have problems in writing the correct spelling.
Deacona & Bryant (2006) in Hong & Chen (2011) stated that spelling has been
noted as an essential component skill in English children’s early development.
Learning to spell a word in an alphabetic language involves acquiring
knowledge about the phonological properties and how to relate these to an
orthographic or written representation where it should focus in spelling training
programs (Hilte & Reitsma, 2011). As Joshi, Treiman, Carreker, & Aaron (2009)
added in Hong & Chen (2011), spelling was a language-based process which
involved coordination of phonological, orthographic, and morphological skills as

children actively constructed their spelling system (Bourassa & Treiman, 2007 in
Hong & Chen, 2011). Thus, as mentioned by Graham (1999) in Anastasiou
(2012), for many second language learners especially elementary school levels,
spelling was a difficult task that might interfere with the execution of higher-order
processes that later on would affect the writing ability.
For young ESL learners, since spelling is one of the problems that may be
encountered while learning English, there will be errors which may occur. In a

4

learning process, finding learners’ errors is an evidence of a process of language
learning (Lengo, 1995) because learners would learn better after they made errors.
Gordon (2007) added when learners learned the morphology and syntax of
a second language they would make errors because of the negative transfer.
Negative transfer happens when the first language interferes the second language
learning process. The first language which is Bahasa Indonesia may interfere
English learning process.
Besides, another main reason the errors made probably is irregularity of
English spelling system (Qaboos, 2013). He added, it did not mean that there was
no spelling rules in English, but it was more on the rules that were hardly

described as regular and rule-governed of English spelling.
In his article, Qaboos (2013) divided the types of errors into two which
were interlingual errors and intralingual errors. Interlingual errors were believed
due to the influence of the first language, while intralingual errors were made
because of the second language-based. Qaboos (2013) described the intralingual
errors could be classified into four main types of errors. There were sound-based
misspelling, misspelling because of homophonous word or another form of the
same word, misspelling because of concerning with the ignorance of spelling
rules, and errors that included anomalous misspelling.

The Description of Group Work
Golembiewski (1962) and Thomas (1967) cited in Douglas (1967:7-8),
and Slavin (1990) defined group work as a number of people who interacted one
5

another and they were psychologically aware and interdependent with the other
group members who shared same concept to be a group of task learning. When
students work in group, it makes them build a positive within-group relationships
that includes collaborative and cooperative working together (Cazden, Cox,
Dickenson, and Stone, 1979, in Kutnic & Berdondini, 2009).
Developing cooperative learning where students can work together in
groups will help students understand the materials. The learning process is not
only about putting students in group then they do something but it is more as
principles and techniques that teacher can use to build mutual helpfulness in group
so that all the group members actively participate in the discussion. By
considering cooperative learning as techniques, it will make students help
themselves, their group members, and even their whole group so they are ready to
explain their group’s answer(s) (Kagan, 1992 in Richards and Renandya, 2002).
There are some ways to decide how big groups should be (Jacobs and
Hall, 2002 in Richards and Renandya, 2002). The first method is a group work
can consist of two people that it creates opportunity for every member to speak up
because there will be less chance to leave out someone. A smaller group can also
deal with activity which only gives limited time. While a larger group is good for
people who deal with big tasks because it can increase skills, personalities,
background of people in group. Also, having larger groups will help teacher to
monitor the groups.
Jacobs and Hall in Richards and Renandya (2002) added that there were
some ways to determine how groups could be formed. The first method is teacher6

selected groups where it will work best to achieve a heterogeneous mix because it
helps to break down the barriers that the different types of students have. Another
method that they mentioned is teacher assigned teams. This method considers
some factors, including language proficiency, first language, sex, race, and
diligence. The next method is mixed-proficiency groups which have the aim to
create groups that consist of range proficiency levels of the group members. And
the last one is random grouping which is an easy and fast way to convey the idea
that one can work with anyone.

Research Findings
There have been several studies that show problems in spelling. Treiman
(1991, 1993) and Treiman et al., (1995) in Werfel and Schuela (2012) found that
when children were asked to spell monosyllabic with consonant blends, they
mostly represented only one sound in the blend which nearly always represented
the first sound of the blend (95% of word errors in natural writing were written as
this pattern, e.g., sop for stop). On the contrary, in final blends, children usually
represented the last sound of the blend (71% of written spelling errors in this
pattern, e.g., fat for fast).
Another study done by Read (1986) in Hong and Chen (2009) found that
children frequently made systematic substitutions of some words which contained
a vowel sound equivalent to its letter name. He found that there were 70% of
preschool subjects who used a vowel letter name to substitute the same sound of
the phoneme. Some of them spelled the words met for meat and lade for lady.
7

Tavosanis (2007) in Qaboos (2013) found that Arabic-speaking learners of
EFL (English as a Foreign Language) shared same problems with other EFL
learners where the spelling errors occured because there were some differences of
the spelling systems of English as the target language and learners’ first language.
Other researchers, Kharma and Hajjaj (1989), in Qaboos (2013), added the errors
made by Arabic-speaking learners of EFL were caused by the irregularity of
English spelling rules.

THE STUDY
Method
This study was a descriptive study which aimed to describe the spelling
errors made by elementary school students in group work. The data were gathered
through ten observations conducted in SD Negeri Kumpulrejo 02, Salatiga. The
school was selected because it gave me easy access to do the research since my
mini observation was conducted there beforehand.

Participants
There were one hundred and six (106) students of elementary school who
were involved in this study. They came from same school, SD Negeri Kumpulrejo
2 Salatiga. The students who participated in this study were young learners who
had age range from around seven to thirteen years old. They also had different
grade levels which were from second grade to sixth grade students. The

8

participants were selected from second grade level because they had already got
English basic in the first grade level. Most of them were Javanese.
Table 1. Students participated in this study in Grades 2 until 6
Grade
2
3
4
5
6

Number of Students
(Total = 106)
13
19
26
24
24

Range of Ages
(7-13)
7-8
8-9
9-10
11-12
12-13

Research Instrument
The aim of the study was to describe the spelling errors made by
elementary students in group work. The study was done through class
observation. Also, the written exercises were used as another research instrument.
The written exercises were given to the students through small group work. The
exercise questions focusing on vocabularies were based on nine topics given.
They were transportation, order and request, telling time, classroom objects, toys,
interesting places, hospital, parts of body, and holiday. The teacher chose to give
closed-ended questions for her students. The questions required the students to
choose the answers from given variants which were commonly used in school.
The closed-ended questions used by the teacher could be divided into choice
answers, assignment and ordering (Stepankova & Emanovsky, 2011).

9

Data Collection
The data for this study were collected through observations. Firstly, I
observed every class in three weeks and there were two observations for every
class. Then, the obsevations were conducted from 13 th February to 2 nd March
2013. The observations lasted for eighty minutes for every meeting. The purpose
of conducting this observation was to describe what happened in the classroom.
During the class observations, I took notes as additional data collection in how the
teacher delivered the materials and the students’ activities during group
discussions. In doing the observation, I placed myself as non-participant observer
who minimally participated in the research setting (Zacharias, 2011) in order to
fully observe what all the participants did.

Data Analysis
The data gathered that were students’ written exercises were classified
based on each grade level and each topic of the lesson. Then, the errors that
occurred were coded into some tables so it became easier to be analyzed. The
notes taken during the observations became additional information for analysis.
After that, the data were analyzed descriptively.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION
This part of the study discusses the kinds of spelling errors in written
exercises encountered by the students through group work. The discussion has
been divided into nine topics based on the lessons taught by the English teacher.
10

A. Spelling Problems in Transportation
From the first observation the English teacher taught vocabulary to the
students using similar strategies even though the grade levels were different. The
English teacher used pictures to help the learners engaged with the materials (in
this case, the English teacher taught Kind of Transportations as the topic). Wright
(2007) stated that pictures as a visual representation of mind give better effect for
students in learning a language. In the first observation, the students in the second
grade level who learnt Kinds of Transportations for the first time were shown
some pictures of transportation that they were familiar with. This is in line with
Rivers (1964) statement saying that students in this case are young learners are
linked to their surroundings and are more interested in the physical and the
tangible.
In order to know whether the students understood the lesson, the English
teacher gave them exercises related to the topic. The teacher asked the students to
work in group of three or four to do the exercises. The students gathered with their
group members even though the members were selected by the teachers. The type
of exercise given to them was production exercise about completing sentences
with some pictures as the clues. The teacher let students open their dictionaries.
Below is the exercise for the students.

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Transportation
How do you come to school?

1. I take a ________.

2. I drive a________.

3. I ride a ________.

4. I fly a _________.

5. I row a ________.

12

In group of three or four, they worked cooperatively together to complete the
sentences, although they did not choose their group members by themselves. They
asked the teacher if they found some difficulties in understanding the pictures.
Some of them preferred to open their dictionaries to help them finish the exercise.
These were some misspellings done by the students during the group works.
Table 2. Students’ spelling errors in Transportations
No

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Questions

I take
a_____________.
I drive
a_____________.
I ride
a______________.
I fly
a______________.
I row
a_____________.

Expected
Answers

Students’
Errors

Bus

Bas

Car

Number of
Errors
4 (33,3%)

-

Bicycle

Bacycle
Bai sikel
Ai plane
Aerplane
-

Airplane
Ship

4 (33,3%)
4 (33,3%)
2 (22,2%)
2 (22,2%)
-

Number of
Students’
Answers
12
12
12
12
9
9
12

Table 2 shows that there were sixteen errors made by students. Most of the
errors made were sound-based errors. This kind of errors are made because of a
single phoneme (sound) in English may have more than one graphic (letter)
representation which is the first sub-category of sound-based error (Qaboos,
2013). As Qaboos stated in his article, there were some types of these errors. Here
are the examples for bus and airplane:
1. The vowel sound /a/ could be written as u or a.
As shown on the table above, there were twelve students who answered bus
and four students made errors by writing bas (33,3%).
13

2. The diphthongs / eə / could be written as ai or ae.
Four students made errors in their work that they misspelled the word airplane
written as aerplane.
There was also another type of intralingual error in data. The errors committed
could be classified into the last type that misspellings occured where plausible
strategy-based explanations were not possible. The students commit compound
errors that they make more than one error in the same word (Qaboos, 2013). Table
2 shows that four errors (33,3%) were made by four students out of twelve
students who answered. They misspelled /i/ in bicycle /’baIsIkl/ which was spelled
/bai sikel/. The compound errors occurred when students committed more than
one error in the same word. In this case, students not only spelled the word based
on the correct pronunciation but also based on separate words and written as bai
sikel.
Students in the fifth grade level learnt the same materials as the second
graders learnt, but the fifth graders learnt with more complicated type of
transportations compared to the lower level. In this level, they learnt to
differentiate between Water Transportation, Air Transportation, and also Land
Transportations. The teacher used approximately eighty percent (80%) English as
medium instruction while some students who did not really engage with the
teacher’s explanation tended to be quiet and sometimes they asked other students.
The teacher simply reviewed the material by asking the students to mention some
kinds of transportations that they knew.

14

After the teacher provided the material to the students, she distributed
some exercises that related to the topic. In this type of exercise, which was a
productive test, the students were asked to categorize transportations into three
categories, water, air, or land transportations. Before they started doing the
exercises, the teacher asked them to work in groups of four and she decided the
group members for each group. She also let the students to open their dictionaries
if there were some words that they did not understand. Below is the exercise for
the students.
Name: __________________________

Group:________

Group the transports correctly.

Scooter

Ship

Bulldozer

hot air balloon

hang-gliders

Raft

Ambulance

Airplane

Canoe

Jet

sail boat

cement truck

Helicopter

Train

Submarine

water transportations

air transportations

15

land transportations

Before doing the task above, the teacher gave explanations on what students
needed to do in order to complete the tasks. The material also provided some
pictures, so that they would help students understand the meaning. There were
some students who were still confused to classify the types of transportations into
each category. It is probably because some students who work in groups may feel
that they are threatened by the presence of other group members which make them
afraid to ask (Latane, William, & Harkins, 1979, in in Kunick & Berdondini,
2009). Most of them mixed up the categories with water and air transportations
since air means water in Bahasa Indonesia. These were some errors committed
by the students.
Table 3. Students’ spelling errors in Transportations
No

Questions

1.

Water
Transportations

2.

Air Transportations

3.

Land Transportations

Expected
Answers
Ship
Raft
Canoe
Sail boat
Submarine
Hot air balloon
Hang-gliders
Airplane
Jet
Helicopter
Scooter
Bulldozer
Ambulance
Cement truck
Train

Students’
Errors
Faft
Conoe
Sall boat
Hot air ballon
Hot our balloon
Han-gliders
Helicopter
Scoter
Bulldozer
Cement truk
-

Number
of Errors
4 (16,6%)
1 (4,2%)
1 (4,2%)
3 (12,5%)
1 (4,2%)
1 (4,2%)
1 (4,2%)
1 (4,2%)
1 (4,2%)
4 (16,6%)
-

Number of
Students’ Answers
24
24
24
24
24
24

The data above shows more complex errors compared to errors made by
the students in second grade level. Even though there were same errors made in
16

24
24
24
24
24
24
24
24
24

this level, other types of errors could be found since the students’ language
proficiencies increased. There were twelve (12) errors happened in this level.
Similar to the second grade level, most students in this level made sound-based
errors because of the irregular nature of English spelling system. The first type of
sound-based errors in the data above is due to single phoneme (sound) in English
that may have more than one graphic (letter) representation (Qaboos, 2013). Tabel
3 shows the spelling error for helicopter was committed because the consonant
sound /k/ could be written as k or c. The students misspelled the word helicopter
to helikopter. From twenty-four students who answered, there was one student
(4,2%) who misspelled the word. The second type of sound-based errors is due to

the omission resulting in the reduction strategies (Qaboos, 2013). As Qaboos
states this second type can be classified into two subs-categories, the first subcategory is due to substitution, addition, or omission based on the correct
pronunciation of some words. And the second sub-category is because of incorrect
pronunciation. Below are examples of the spelling errors based on correct
pronunciation for words hot air balloon and bulldozer.
 Hot air ballon (hot air balloon)



Buldozer (bulldozer)

Some students of fifth grade level made errors by omitting one letter of the word
based on the correct pronunciation. There were three errors (12,5%) of the
spelling of hot air balloon. In addition, there was one error made by one student
in writing the word bulldozer. There were also some examples of errors based on
incorrect pronunciations made by the students, for examples:

17

 Hot our balloon (Hot air balloon)

 Han-gliders (hang-gliders)

 Scoter (scooter)

 Cement truk (cement truck)

Out of twenty-four students who did the task, there was one student (4,2%) who
misspelled each the following words hot air balloon, scooter, hang-gliders, and
cement truck.

B. Spelling Problems in Order and Request
Students of sixth grade level learnt Order and Request (Ordering Food in a
Restaurant) for the first time. The teacher started to ask to them about their

experiences in how they ordered food in restaurants. Then, she pointed at some
students to do a role play as a seller and buyer in a fast food restaurant so that the
rest would have the idea what the topic was about. By involving students to do
new kind of activity which are exciting to stimulate their brains, it makes them not
to get bored during the language learning (Hammer, 1993).
After the teacher gave explanations about the material, she asked the
students to work in group to do the task. The task distributed to the students was
about completing the missing dialogue. They should work in group of six and do
the roles play between costumer and waiter in a restaurant once they finished the
task. This is in line with Jacobs and Hall (2002) in Richards and Renandya (2002)
statement that a larger group is good media for people who deal with big tasks
because it can increase skills, personalities, background of people in group. Also
having larger groups will help teacher to monitor the groups. The students were

18

free to decide whom they wanted to work with. Below is the exercise for the
students.

Ordering Food in a Restaurant
Waiter : Hello, Can I___________ you?
Kim : Yes, ___________to have some lunch.
Waiter : _______ _______ _____ a starter?
Kim : Yes, I'd like a bowl of chicken soup,__________.
Waiter : And what _____ ____ ______for a main course?
Kim : I'd like a grilled cheese sandwich.
Waiter : Would you like ____________to drink?
Kim : Yes, I'd like a glass of Coke, please.
Waiter ... After Kim has her lunch: Can I bring you anything else?
Kim : No thank you. Just the ________________.
Waiter : Certainly.
Kim : I don't have my glasses.___________ is the lunch?
Waiter : That's $6.75.
Kim : ____ _____ _____ Thank you very much.
Waiter : You're__________________. Have a good day.
Kim : Thank you, the same_____ _____________.
The exercise above required the students to complete the dialogue. The
students did not need to produce new words because they could find the correct
answers from another dialogue that had already been distributed. By using the full
dialogue as the guideline, students in group needed to work together to fill in the
missing gap exercise. The teacher also let the students open their dictionaries if
they found some difficult words. Some students who were satisfied with their
group members worked enthusiastically, but some felt unhappy because they did
not like their group members and tended to be silent. From this observation, these
were some errors committed by the students.

19

Table 4. Students’ spelling errors in Order and Request
No

1.

Questions

Hello, Can I______
you?
2. I __________ like
to have some lunch.
3. _________ _______
_________ a
starter?
4. Yes, I'd like a bowl
of chicken
soup,________.
5. And what______
______ _____for a
main course?
6. Would you
like_______to
drink?
7. No thank you. Just
the______.
8. I don't have my
glasses.___ is the
lunch?
9. _____ ____
____Thank you
very much.
10. You're______.
Have a good day.
11. Thank you,
the same_____
_____.

Expected
Answers

Students’
Errors

Help

Number
of
Errors
1 (4%)
1 (4%)
2 (8%)

Number of
Students’
Answers
24

Would

Helb
Help
Wold

would you
like

would you
lake

2 (8%)

24

Please

Plase
Pleeas

2 (8%)
1 (4%)

24

24

would you
like

-

-

24

Something

Someting
Somethin

24
24

Bill

-

4
(16,6%)
2 (8%)
-

how much

-

-

24

5 (23,8)
1 (4,7%)

21

Here you
are

Hare
Hore

Welcome

-

-

24

To you

-

-

24

The data above show some errors made by the students. The first type of
errors in this level was from the first sub-category of sound-based errors. There
were some spellings errors committed for something where the consonant sound
/θ/ could be written as /θ/ or /t/. There were four (4) students who made errors
(16,6%) out of twenty four students who completed the task. They misspelled the
word something to someting. Most of the students’ spelling errors were
20

categorized into the second sub-category of sound-based intralingual (L2-based)
errors caused by the omission as the result of reduction strategies which included
cases of substitution, addition, or omission based on the correct pronunciation of
some words. These were the examples of spelling errors based on incorrect
pronunciations:
 Helb (help)

 Wold (would)

 Hare, hore (here)

 Somethin

Out of twenty four students who answered, there was one error (4%) for words
help, would, and something. And out of twenty one students who completed the
dialogue, there were five errors (23,8%) made by writing hare one error made
(4,7%) by writing hore for the word here.

C. Spelling Problems in telling Time
From the third day of observation, the students of third grade level learnt
about Time. It was new materials for them so they only learnt about …….o’clock
and …..past…... Also, the teacher used only number one (1) to twenty (20) in
English to make students more focused on the content. The limitation she made
was in order not to make the teaching process monotonous or boring (Scoot and
Yteberg, 1990). The teacher started the activity by asking some students about
their daily activities related to the use of Time. Students enthusiastically involved
in the learning process. The teacher drew some clocks on the blackboard to make
the students understand the material.

21

After giving explanations, the teacher asked the students to make group
consisted of three or four students. She selected the group members so it broke
down the barriers that the different types of students had (Jacobs and Hall in
Richards and Renandya, 2002). Then, she distributed the exercise to the students
and did not let them open their dictionaries because they already learnt about
Numbers. Below is the exercise for the students.
Exercise
1.

2.

It is __________ o’clock.

It is ________
_________.

3.

4.

It is _________
____________.

It is _________ past
________.

5.

6.

It is_________ _______
________.

It is _______ _______
_______.

The exercise above required students to fill in the missing gap. The students
needed read the time shown in the pictures. Some students worked
communicatively by helping other members of the group. But some students who
felt uncomfortable tended to depend on the teacher to solve their problems
(Latane, William, & Harkins, 1979, in Kunick & Berdondini, 2009). The table
below shows some errors committed by the students.

22

Table 5. Students’ spelling errors in telling Time
No

Questions

1.

It is______________
o’clock
It
is
_______
___________ ______.
It is ___________
____________.
It is __________ past
_______.
It is _____ ________
________.

2.
3.
4.
5.

Expected
Answers

Students’
Errors

Three

Tree

1 (5,3%)

Number of
Students’
Answers
19

Twenty past
twelve
six o’clock

Twentye

2 (15,4%)

13

-

-

19

-

-

19

Ten past six
Five past eight

Vive
Fife

Number
of Errors

1 (7,7%)
3 (23%)

13
13

Most errors in the data above could be classified as sound-based
misspelling in the first sub category which is due to the fact that a single phoneme
in English may have more than one graphic representation. These are the
examples of the spelling errors made by the students. The errors for three made by
students due to the consonant sound /θ/ could be written as θ or t. There was one
error (5,3%) made out of nineteen students in the third grade level who misspelled
the word three to tree. There was substitution of consonant sound /θ/ to /t/. There
were some spelling errors that could be categorized into another sub-category of
sound-based intralingual errors (includes case of substitution, additional, and
omission) from data above. The errors based on incorrect pronunciation could be
displayed as the following:
 Vive (five)



Fife (five)

There was one (7,7%) student out of thirteen who substituted the consonant sound
f to v and misspelled the word into vive instead of five. The same type of error was

23

also made for the same word. There were three students (23%) substituted the
consonant sound v to f and made errors by writing fife.

D. Spelling Problems in Classroom Objects
From the fourth day of observations, the students in fourth grade level
learnt about Classroom Objects. It was new material in that day lesson. The
teacher started the lesson by asking some students to mention things in the
classroom. Then, she pointed at some things else in the classroom that students
did not mention. The teacher did some gestures about the use of classroom objects
so the students could guess. By doing some gestures, it helps students convey the
meanings as stated by Gordon (2007) that comprehensible input can be delivered
using nonverbal communication strategies, for example using gestures and
pantomime.
Then, the teacher needed to clarify whether her students engage with the
lesson or not by asking her student to do some exercises. She asked her students to
work in pairs since there were around thirty students in one class. Asking students
to work in small groups or in pairs would make less chance to leave out someone
because it created opportunity for every member to speak up. A smaller group can
deal with activity which only gives limited time (Jacobs and Hall, 2002 in
Richards and Renandya, 2002). Below is the exercise for the students.

24

Name:_______________________

Group:____________

Classroom Objects
What is this?
It is a pencil.

What is this?
What is this?
What is
It is a ……….…………this?…………..….……………………………

Is this a notebook?
What is this?
What is this?
Is this a schoolbag?
……………………… ……………………… Yes, …………….……No, ……………………

Is this a crayon?
Is this a desk?
Is this a chair?
Is this a map?
……………………… ……………………… ……………………… ………………………
………………
………………
………………
………………

The students were required to produce some language by themselves since the
type of exercise above is production test. The exercise provided some pictures to
help students discover the answers. The students in group were free to open their
dictionaries if there were some words they did not understand. The teacher also
helped students by giving clues if they still did not understand the exercise.
Students worked cooperatively by helping one another when they found
difficulties. As the result of their working, here are the data gathered from the
students’ works.

25

Table 6. Students’ spelling errors in Classroom Objects
No
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

11.

Questions

Expected
Answers
What is this?
Ruler
It is a ………………….……
What is this?
It is a rubber
…………………………… eraser
What is this?
It is a
…………………………… dictionary
What is this?
It is a pen/
…………………………… ballpoint
What is this?
It is a bag
……………………………
…………
It is
Is this a notebook?
Yes, ……………….………
Is this a schoolbag?
It is not/ isn’t
No, ………………………
Is this a chair?
No, it is not/
………………………… isn’t
No, it is not/
Is this a crayon?
…………………………… isn’t
Is this a desk?
Yes, it is
……………………………
…………
Is this a map?
Yes, it is
……………………………

Students’
Errors
Rulur
Luler
Ruber eraser

Number of
Errors
2 (7,7%)
1 (3,8%)
1 (4,5%)

Number of
Students’ Answers
26
26
22

-

-

26

Bollpoint
Bapoint
Bolpoint
Balpoin
Beg
Bek
nat
nt
-

2 (8,7%)
1 (4,3%)
2 (8,7%)
1 (4,3%)
1 (4%)
1 (4%)
5 (19,2%)
2 (7,7%)
-

26

-

-

26

-

-

26

data were more complicated compared to the previous sub-themes. The first errors
category committed by the students due to a single phoneme in English might
have more than one graphic representation (the first sub-category of sound-based

nat (not)
26

26
26
26

-

classifications of intralingual errors (L2-based errors). The spelling errors in this

 The vowel sound /o/ could be o or ɒ.

26

-

Some errors show in the data above could be categorized into some

spelling errors). Below are the examples:

23
23
23
23
25
25

There were five errors (19,2%) made out of twenty six students who answered the
question. The students misspelled the word by writing nat. The data also showed
that the second sub-category of sound-based spelling errors were made. The
students made spelling errors based on the correct pronunciation. Below are the
examples:
 Ruber eraser (rubber eraser)
 Bollpoint (ballpoint)
The error was made by one student (4,5%) out of twenty two students who
answered the questions. The error was made by writing ruber eraser. The same
type of errors also was committed by two students (8,7%) out of twenty-three
students who did the task who wrote bollpoint. Another type of errors can be
classified based on Table 6 above. The misspellings committed where plausible
strategy-based explanations were not possible. There were some students made
compound errors where they made more than one errors in the same words as the
following:
 Balpoin (balpoint)
The error made by one students (4,3%) out of twenty three students who answered
the question. The error made when balpoin was replaced ballpoint. It happened
because there was omission of l and t due to sound-based spelling.

E. Spelling Problems in Toys
The next observation conducted to students of second grade level who
leant about Toys. The class was moved into the library in order to create new
27

atmosphere so that the students would not get bored with the class. Students
already learnt Toys in the previous meeting so they only reviewed the material.
Teacher asked all the students to pay attention to what she wrote on the
blackboard. Then, she asked the students to translate the words in Bahasa
Indonesia. When they could not find the meaning, the teacher gave some clues by
drawing on the blackboard, for example, when she wrote kite but students forgot
what kite was, she directly drew kite on the blackboard so students could discover
the meaning. The use of pictures as a visual representation of mind will give
better effect for students in learning a language as stated by Wright (1990:6) cited
in Joklova (2009).
After reviewing the previous lesson, teacher distributed some exercises to
the students. The teacher asked students to work in pairs or group of three and let
the students to decide their group members by themselves. By asking them to
work in groups, they would have positive relationships and dialogue among group
members to support the cognitive-based learning (Kutnick et al., 2005, in Kutnick
& Berdondini, 2009). Below is the exercise for the students.
Name :

Group :

Look and wr i te

Hello! My name is................ I have got a toy…………..

I have got a ……………….

…………………………….

and a toy ………………

and a toy …….

I have got a lot of

and a …………………………..
28

Thirteen students working in groups did the exercise which required them to
produce new language from their thoughts. The pictures on the exercise guided
them to find the answers to complete the task. The students were free to open their
dictionaries if they found some difficult words. Some students who did not feel
really comfortable with their pairs or group members preferred to ask the teacher
when they found difficulties. Below are the errors made by the students through
group work.
Table 7. Students’ spelling errors in Toys
No

Questions

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Hello! My name is......
I have got a toy……
and a toy ……..…
I have got a ………
and a toy …………
I have got a lot of …
and a…………….

Expected
Answers
(students’ name)
Airplane
Helicopter
Kite
Truck
Marbles
Bicycle

Students’
Errors
Airplen
Helikopter
Truk
Baisikel
Bicyle
Daisikel

Number of
Errors
1 (8,3%)
2 (20%)
2 (22,2%)
1 (9%)
1 (9%)
1 (9%)

Number of
Students’ Answers
13
12
10
13
9
13
11
11
11

According to the data, the errors made could be classified into some subcategories of sound-based misspellings. The first sub-errors category from soundbased misspelling is due to the fact that a single phoneme (sound) in English may
have more than one graphic representation in Qaboos (2013). Tabel 7 shows the
spelling errors for helicopter was committed because the consonant sound /k/
could be written as k or c. There were two errors (20%) made by students out of
ten students who answered the question. They misspelled the word helicopter
written as helikopter. Another sub-category of sound-based errors could also be
29

analyzed from the data provided. There are some errors that can be classified into
the second sub-category of sound based intralingual errors which includes
omission, addition, or substitution from the reduction strategies whether errors
based on correct pronunciation and errors based on incorrect pronunciation
(Qaboos, 2013). Here are examples of errors based on correct pronunciation:
 Baisikel (bicycle)
 Truk (truck)
There was one error (9%) made out of eleven students who answered bicycle and
misspelled into baisikel. The same type errors were committed by two students
(22,2%) out of nine students answered the question, they omitted consonant sound
/c/ and wrote as truk. There were also some errors based on incorrect
pronunciation as the following:
 Airplen (airplane)
One student (8,3%) out of thirteen students who did the exercise misspelled the
word airplane and wrote as airplen where he/she substituted vowel sound /a/ into
/e/ and omitted vowel sound e at the end of the word.

F. Spelling Problems in Interesting Places
Another observation was conducted to the students of third grade level
who learnt Interesting Places. The topic was not new for them since they already
learnt it in the previous meeting. The teacher reviewed the material by asking
some students to mention some tourism places. The teacher needed to clarify
whether her students remember the previous lesson or not. Also, the teacher re30

wrote some words mentioned by the students on the blackboard to recall their
memories. The vocabulary list that she wrote on the blackboard had another
function which was to help the students do their tasks.
Then, the students were asked to work in pairs to discuss and do the
exercise distributed. The teacher let her students open their dictionaries if they
found some difficult words. The exercise provided some pictures in order to help
students understand the questions. By giving number in every picture, it gave
some clues for the students to answer the questions. Below is the exercise
distributed to the students.
Name:

Group:
3

1
2

4
7

6
5
1. Merbabu mountain__is an interisting place. It is located near
Kopeng.
2. Laras Asri is a_________________that is located near bakso
ABC, Salatiga.
3. We can see many animals in Gembira Loka __________.
4. Borobudur _________ is one of seven wonders in the world
that is located in Magelang.
5. One of the famous _____________in Jogjakarta is Parang
Tritis.
6. We can go to__________to find many historical things.
7. In Jakarta, there is a national____________________ that
we know as Monas..

31

Eighteen students who worked in pairs did the exercises enthusiastically since
they worked with their friends. It makes them build a positive within-group
relationships that includes collaborative and cooperative working together
(Cazden, Cox, Dickenson, and Stone, 1979, in Kutnic & Berdondini, 2009). They
shared and discussed the answers with their group members. When students found
difficulties, the teacher helped them by giving some clues to the students. The
errors made by the students could be analyzed into data bellow.
Table 8. Students’ spelling errors in Interesting Places
No

Questions

1.

Laras Asri is a _______________
that is located near bakso ABC,
Salatiga.
We can see many animals in
Gembira Loka __________.
Borobudur _________ is one of
seven wonders in the world that is
located in Magelang.
One of the famous _____________
in Jogjakarta is Parang Tritis.
We can go to__________to find
many historical things.
In Jakarta, there is a national
__________________ that we know
as Monas..

2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Expected
Answers
Resort

Students’
Errors
Resrot
Rosot

Number
of Errors
2 (11%)
1 (5,5%)

Number of
Students’ Answers
18
18

Zoo

-

-

18

Temple

Tample

4 (25,3%)

17

Beach

Boach
Bach
Musium

1 (7%)
1 (7%)
7 (41%)

14
14
17

1 (6,25%)
1 (6,25%)
1 (6,25%)
4 (25%)

16
16
16
16

Museum
Monument

Menumet
Monumt
Monumet
monumen

Most of the errors from the data above could be classified as sound-based
misspelling (Qaboos, 2013). There was one spelling error that could be classified
into the first sub-category which happened due to the fact that a single sound in
English might have more than one letter. The following error could be included as
the first sub-category, for example:
32

 The vowel sound /i/ could be i or e
musium (museum)
The seven errors (41%) for the word museum were found out of seventeen
students who answered. The students wrote as musium. The error was committed
because they substituted the vowel sound e to i. There were also some soundbased errors of the second sub-category analyzed (see Table 8). The errors
occured due to substitution, additional, or omission based on correct or incorrect
pronunciation of some words. The errors based on correct pronunciation of the
words could be seen as the following:
 monumen (monument)
There were four students (25%) out of sixteen who misspelled the word
monument and wrote as monumen. The errors were made because they omitted the
consonant sound t at the end of the word. There were also some errors that could
be classified based on incorrect pronunciation. Here are the examples:
 tample (temple)
There were four students (25,3%) out of seventeen students made errors by
writing tample. The errors were made because they substituted the vowel sound e
to be a.

G. Spelling Problems in Hospital

33

The observation was conducted to twenty four students of the fifth grade
level who learnt Hospital. At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher asked some
students if they had experiences to visit hospital. Then, she explored students’
background knowledge by asking some questions about Hospital. Also, there was
a mini game where teacher drew some pictures related to the topic and required
the students to guess the pictures. By doing games, it will help teacher to create
context in which the language is useful and meaningful. It will also develop
students’ speaking abilities in or