CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Students with reading difficulties usually have problems in spelling as well and often times have

more severe deficits in spelling than in r eading, according to Hallahan et. al. in introduction to learning disab ilities. In reading, context and other cues help one to decode a wor d, but in spelling, one must produce the word after hearing or thinki ng it. As a consequence of their difficulties with spelling, student find writing tasks both laborious and aversive. Spelling requires that a person produce in written or oral form the correct sequence of letters that form a particular word. To do this, a person converts phonemes (sounds) into graphemes (written letters) . T here is only one correct way to spell any particular word with a giv en meaning. Thus, spelling does not allow any room for creative answer s or style, a word is either spelled correctly or it is misspell. The study was conducted in Tiwi Community College located in Libtong, Tiwi, Alba y offering two courses and one of them is the Bachelor of Elementary Education. During the second semester, BEED 1 students are having their English 2 (Writing in the Discipline) as one of their subjects. Their responses to our conversation , they are experiencing difficulty in writing composition particularly when it c omes to their spelling performance. Mrs. Maida Bobier one of their instructor, h ad given us permission to conduct our survey that will determine their performan ce level on spelling. We then find time to raise our concern to the selected stu dents who are willing to know and to improve their performance and clearly expla ined to them our plan of conducting our action research with them as participant s. We emphasized our purpose of helping them in their difficulty with the said t opic and our gratefulness to receive help from them to realize our action resear ch. We have a sum total of 20 respondents coming from each section of the first year BEED students, and all of them actively participated in our study. They wer e all very honest in telling us that they face hardships when it comes to writin g words with correct spelling. English spelling is particularly difficult. Over the centuries. The pronu nciation of English has deviated even further away from the spelling. Many langu ages have reformed their spelling to adjust to such changes, but English has not . It teams with spelling and pronunciation challenges, words like buffet, cousin , canyon, cough ad mosquito. What makes spelling even more difficult is that the written form of the English language has inconsistent pattern. It would be much easier if each phoneme had one and only grapheme.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE How Spelling is Developed and Invented In this article, how a person invented a spelling and how a person spells a word will be discussed. Templeton and Henderson are introduced here. They are also l inguists who stated that spelling is a major element of acquisition. When a teac her asks to spell " cat ", the students will automatically answer "Capital C, s mall A, and small T, CAT." That's the real thing whenever we ask a child to spel l a word. What is spelling anyway? How important is it to be studied? Spelling i s a major component of language acquisition, and it focuses on the written word (Temple, et al., 2005). Since spellers learn through invented spelling, teens go

through different stages as experimenting with words. Moreover, to understand b etter how spelling is developed, we should be aware of its past. The spelling is a repository of the history of the English language (Henderson, 1990). The teacher stretches the sound of each letter for the children to identify the spelling. For students who are English language learners, this practice is impor tant as a help with their writing. There are suggested family strategies to help students build the competency in spelling. It is Reading a book together, as an e ncouragement to try new words and a help to build spelling proficiency. Another is, teaching to use dictionary as early as possible. The dictionary can be used as a tool to find the correct spelling of a word. Other strategies are through w ord and picture sorts, songs and finger plays, and scrabble games. The Impact of Texting on Students' Writing Skills If you happen to know any pre-teens or teenagers, or have been to your local mal l on a recent Friday night, you are probably familiar with this scene: Gaggles of tweens and teens walking, sitting, standing, together in near silence as they type away at their respective cell phone. If you've ever been on the receiving e nd of one of these text messages, then you've had the pleasure of decoding the ext ensive digital shorthand that permeates the vocabulary of many middle school and high school students. It is reasonable to question the impact of this type of c ommunication on students' writing skills, and many have. A search for texting and language arts yields numerous articles and blog posts by educators and educationa l reporters describing the negative effects of text messaging on students' grammar and writing skills. Edutopia, an educational website, conducted an online poll asking Does text messaging harm students' writing skills? Out of 1,842 votes, 944 votes (51%) chose Yes. I believe students are carrying over the writing habits t hey pick up through text messaging into school assignments. 476 votes (26%) chos e No. I believe students can write one way to their friends and another way in c lass. They can keep the two methods separate. 361 votes (20%) chose Maybe. Alth ough text messaging may have some impact on how students write, I don't think it's a significant problem. (http://www.edutopia.org/node/5369/results) Text messaging forsakes spelling, sentence structure, capitalization, and punctu ation in favor of speed, making it wholly inappropriate for school assignments a nd any other formal writing. Part of learning to express thoughts in writing is learning how to adjust the tone and voice of your writing to best suit the audi ence and subject matter. 12 of 27 Text Speaks and Its Effect on Adolescents' Spelling Proficiency How Text Speaks Affect Language Development Among the Asian countries, interestingly, Philippines has the largest population of cellphone users who use text messaging as a means of communication. Not less than the average of 20 text messages is being sent daily by a subscriber. Becau se of this, Philippines has been considered as the text capital of the world. In 2007, 42.70 million people who are users of cellphone consider text messaging a s a cheap and reliable alternative means of communication. According to the Glob al messaging Survey conducted by Nokia, text messaging was proven to be an addic tive activity. It is also confirmed by the study of University of Queensland inA ustralia (Umman, 2009).Here is a long history of trying to correct and change th e illogical system of English spelling. In Ammon Shea's article entitled " The keypad solution ", Benjamin Franklin, AndrewCarnegie and President Theodore Roosevelt tried to f ix the issue of spelling change. Now, the widespread change in how people spell English words appears to have come from a large group of young people sending te xt messages. We can never please everyone to stick on conventional spelling. Per haps, the first most successful attempt at spelling reform was written by NoahWe bster. Somehow, it is a reliable source of conventional spelling. 13 of 27 Text Speaks and Its Effect on Adolescents' Spelling Proficiency It does affect, sometimes, how I do my schoolwork an interview with MargareteStethe r from Hartland. She said this as she stopped in a mall, where cellular phones a

s commonas low-cut jeans. I do put, instead of a Y-O-U, I put a U ( Linguists Mixed on Effects of Text Messaging, 2003). That way alarms some linguists who worry that the proliferation text-speakce llphone users type and send short messageswill enforce undisciplined habits.Ms. M ildred Rojo-Laurilla of de La Salle University had a research entitled Predicting Text Messaging Style in the PhilippinesA sociolinguistic Analysis . The results have revealedthat the texter's age, sex and work are predictors of te xting styles. In terms of the discourse features, certain politeness markers, ro le, topics, speech acts and co texter texting styles are also predictors of text ing style, same to perception and texting profile as weak predictors. Text Messages are Killing Grammar: Linguists, 2004 In line with this, people using e-mail and SMS were unconcerned about grammar an d punctuation (Carr, J. 2004). Grammar and Punctuations, through SMS ande-mail, h ave been increasingly underused around the world. said Sue Butler, editorial 14 of 27 Text Speaks and Its Effect on Adolescents' Spelling Proficiency committee member of Macquarie Dictionary. She also added that they are now getti ng a failing in standards of punctuation that can be disconcerting. Mediums such as television advertisements and public billboards often sacrifice grammar and punctuation to attract audiences in the possible shortest time. It was also being sacrificed on radios and t.v. because often, presenters have to speak faster. Sh e added. Even the 98% of her first year students did not know about apostrophes( Carr, J. 2004). Text messaging phenomenon impacts not just what youth say but al so on how they spell; should we push back on conventional spelling, or allow a n ew generation to developown standards? (Enie, M. 2010)However, on the other way around, some believe that text messaging has no harm. 15 of 27 Text Speaks and Its Effect on Adolescents' Spelling Proficiency increasing population of cellphone users. This is a proof that language and lang uages change as said by Carolyn Adger, director of the Language in Society Division of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington. Besides, text messaging is making it easier for people to communi cate and innovating with language is not dangerous, she added. In the study Does Text Messaging Affect the Spelling Skills of the Students? by EdisonYanzon, a pre-test and post-test were done to grade 5 students of Xavie r High school to test their spelling proficiency. It says there that the misspel ling is just characterized mostly by typographical non-conformity and not by inc ompetence. Abbott, George 1887-1995. , Our intervention also seemed to improve the students ' spelling revision skills. Compared to baseline, both students were able to fin d and correct more preset spelling errors in the Aleksis 2 Virhejahti computer g ame after the intervention. In most cases, the students were able to correct an error if they found it. This finding is different from that of MacArthur, Graham , Haynes, and DeLaPaz (1996). They found middle-school students able to find abo ut 30%, but able to correct only about 9% of spelling errors in their own compos itions. Johnnie J. Lim conducted this study to find answers to the problem whether or no t pronunciation affects spelling and comprehension of the students in learning E nglish as a Foreign Language. As a researcher, he tried to prove if learners of the English language from Midd le East had common errors in writing correct spelling of words with letter r', be it in the middle or at the end of the word, and if their comprehension was affe cted by pronunciation. International Dyslexia Association: Spelling is difficult for many people, but there is much less research on spelli ng than there is on reading to tell us just how many people spell poorly or beli eve they spell poorly. Less is known about spelling competence in the general po pulation than is known about reading achievement because there is no national te st for spelling and many states do not test students' spelling skills. Almost all people with dyslexia, however, struggle with spelling and face seriou s obstacles in learning to cope with this aspect of their learning disability. T he definition of dyslexia notes that individuals with dyslexia have "conspicuous

problems" with spelling and writing, in spite of being capable in other areas a nd having a normal amount of classroom instruction. Many individuals with dyslex ia learn to read fairly well, but difficulties with spelling (and handwriting) t end to persist throughout life, requiring instruction, accommodations, task modi fications, and understanding from those who teach or work with the individual. Devonshire &Fluck, 2010: "English spelling, as well as in many other languages, consists of three elements: morphology, etymology, and phonology". As traditiona l spelling instruction focuses primarily on phonology and hardly touches on etym ology and morphology, intervention is necessary, and the Ultimate Spelling softw are, which thoroughly covers those three elements, is expected to cause a dramat ic improvement in spelling-challenged students. Writing, Technology and Teens This raises a major question: What, if anything, connects the formal writing tee ns do and the informal e-communication they exchange on digital screens? A consi derable number of educators and children's advocates worry that James Billington , the Librarian of Congress, was right when he recently suggested that young Ame ricans' electronic communication might be damaging "the basic unit of human thou ght -- the sentence."1 They are concerned that the quality of writing by young A mericans is being degraded by their electronic communication, with its carefree spelling, lax punctuation and grammar, and its acronym shortcuts. Others wonder if this return to text-driven communication is instead inspiring new appreciatio n for writing among teens. Teenagers' lives are filled with writing. All teens write for school, and 93% of teens say they write for their own pleasure. Most notably, the vast majority of teens have eagerly embraced written communication with their peers as they shar e messages on their social network pages, in emails and instant messages online, and through fast-paced thumb choreography on their cell phones. Parents believe that their children write more as teens than they did at that age. Even though teens are heavily embedded in a tech-rich world, they do not believe that communication over the internet or text messaging is writing. The main reason teens use the internet and cell phones is to exploit their commu nication features.3 4 Yet despite the nearly ubiquitous use of these tools by te ens, they see an important distinction between the "writing" they do for school and outside of school for personal reasons, and the "communication" they enjoy v ia instant messaging, phone text messaging, email and social networking sites. 85% of teens ages 12-17 engage at least occasionally in some form of electro nic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or inst ant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites. 60% of teens do not think of these electronic texts as "writing." Teens generally do not believe that technology negatively influences the quality of their writing, but they do acknowledge that the informal styles of writing t hat mark the use of these text-based technologies for many teens do occasionally filter into their school work. Overall, nearly two-thirds of teens (64%) say th ey incorporate some informal styles from their text-based communications into th eir writing at school. 50% of teens say they sometimes use informal writing styles instead of prope r capitalization and punctuation in their school assignments; 38% say they have used text shortcuts in school work such as "LOL" (which st ands for "laugh out loud"); 25% have used emoticons (symbols like smiley faces :) in school work. The impact of technology on writing is hardly a frivolous issue because most bel ieve that good writing is important to teens' future success. Both teens and their parents say that good writing is an essential skill for lat er success in life. 83% of parents of teens feel there is a greater need to write well today than th ere was 20 years ago. 86% of teens believe good writing is important to success in life -- some 56 % describe it as essential and another 30% describe it as important. Parents also believe that their children write more now than they did when they were teens.

48% of teenagers' parents believe that their child is writing more than the parent did during their teen years; 31% say their child is writing less; and 20% believe it is about the same now as in the past. Recognition of the importance of good writing is particularly high in black hous eholds and among families with lower levels of education. 94% of black parents say that good writing skills are more important now tha n in the past, compared with 82% of white parents and 79% of English-speaking Hi spanic parents. 88% of parents with a high school degree or less say that writing is more im portant in today's world, compared with 80% of parents with at least some colleg e experience. Teens believe that the writing instruction they receive in school could be impro ved. Most teens feel that additional instruction and focus on writing in school would help improve their writing even further. Our survey asked teens whether their w riting skills would be improved by two potential changes to their school curricu la: teachers having them spend more time writing in class, and teachers using mo re computer-based tools (such as games, writing help programs or websites, or mu ltimedia) to teach writing. Overall, 82% of teens feel that additional in-class writing time would improve t heir writing abilities and 78% feel the same way about their teachers using comp uter-based writing tools. Non-school writing, while less common than school writing, is still widespread a mong teens Outside of a dedicated few, non-school writing is done less often than school wr iting, and varies a bit by gender and race/ethnicity. Boys are the least likely to write for personal enjoyment outside of school. Girls and black teens are mor e likely to keep a journal than other teens. Black teens are also more likely to write music or lyrics on their own time. 47% of black teens write in a journal, compared with 31% of white teens. 37% of black teens write music or lyrics, while 23% of white teens do. 49% of girls keep a journal; 20% of boys do. 26% of boys say they never write for personal enjoyment outside of school. Teens more often write by hand for both out-of-school writing and school work. Most teens mix and match longhand and computers based on tool availability, assi gnment requirements and personal preference. When teens write they report that t hey most often write by hand, though they also often write using computers as we ll. Out-of-school personal writing is more likely than school writing to be done by hand, but longhand is the more common mode for both purposes. 72% of teens say they usually (but not exclusively) write the material they are composing for their personal enjoyment outside of school by hand; 65% say th ey usually write their school assignments by hand. Parents are generally more positive than their teen children about the effect of computers and text-based communication tools on their child's writing. Parents are somewhat more likely to believe that computers have a positive influ ence on their teen's writing, while teens are more likely to believe computers h ave no discernible effect. 27% of parents think the internet writing their teen does makes their teen c hild a better writer, and 27% think it makes the teen a poorer writer. Some 40% say it makes no difference. Teens enjoy non-school writing, and to a lesser extent, the writing they do for school. Enjoyment of personal, non-school writing does not always translate into enjoyme nt of school-based writing. Fully 93% of those ages 12-17 say they have done som e writing outside of school in the past year and more than a third of them write consistently and regularly. Half (49%) of all teens say they enjoy the writing they do outside of school "a great deal," compared with just 17% who enjoy the w riting they do for school with a similar intensity. Teens that enjoy their school writing more are more likely to engage in creative

writing at school compared with teens who report very little enjoyment of schoo l writing (81% vs. 69%). In our focus groups, teens report being motivated to wr ite by relevant, interesting, self-selected topics, and attention and feedback f rom engaged adults who challenged them. How Does Technology Impact Young Adults' Writing Habits? At the Pew Internet and American Life Project, we recently published a report ti tled Writing, Technology and Teens, which considered the impact of informal writ ing styles, as commonly found in the infinite number of shorthand conversations young people have each day over text messaging and IM. The primary question we w anted to answer with this research was if these informal writing styles, which m ake liberal use of writing shortcuts such as acronyms (e.g., LOL, ROFL, BRB, etc .); abbreviations (e.g., "cu2nite", meaning "see you tonight"); and emoticons, s uch as the recently-turned-10-years-old smiley face, had any effects on teens' mor e formal writing, such as what was required from them in a school environment. As Nicole recently wrote, the results from this research reveal that while most teens do not consider these forms of interaction as "writing," the habits develo ped in quick messaging conversations do bleed into their more formal, school-bas ed writing. Since I considered the communication habits of college students for my master's thesis work, I thought it might be interesting to look at the question s posed in our teens' research in light of my data on a slightly older crowd.

Related Literature (local) James Tollefson, language policy and applied linguistics expert, in his book, Pl anning Language, Planning Inequality (1991). In a review, Ester J. de Jong, a bi lingual education expert, wrote: Tollefson chooses the Philippines, previously an American colony, to show the rel ationship between language, class, and power. In the Philippines, English has a high status as the official language of the country. It is the language for educ ation, and often a required language for higher-level jobs. Pilipino, one of the major national languages, has been proposed by the communist adversaries of the government as the official language. Neo-classical explanations describe this c onflict in terms of the instrumental value of English versus the symbolic/integr ative value of Pilipino. However, this avoids looking at the social class issues that are involved. Tollefson points out that the current policy, which promotes English and does not officially recognize the national languages in education, gives the English-speaking elite an advantage, while at the same time maintainin g linguistic barriers to education for the poor, who speak other languages than English. Thus, the struggle between the languages is therefore one aspect of a s truggle between competing economic interests, with English and Pilipino serving the aims of fundamentally different groups. Lope K. Santos, former Director of the SurianngWikangPambansa [which is now the KomisyonsaWikang Filipino], was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.So me of those who support the movement to develop Pilipino as our national languag e could have been. But that's within their right. Personally, I think the matter of nationalism as the central issue of language p olicy has been overplayed. I have learned how to speak the language and its perm utations some 40 years ago and for some reason, I just didn't feel any more nation alistic even during those few years of my life spent somewhere in Laguna, a Taga log or Pilipino heartland, where I did speak Filipino every day. Assessing the extent of poor spelling among college students by Kathleen Gilliga n Many people do not realize how large a problem spelling is among college student s. I like to think of myself as an average speller, but upon seeing some of my c lassmates' papers I find myself being an above average speller. What makes me be tter at spelling than they are? Is it my schooling and my teachers? My love for

reading? My constant use of spell check? To some extent, these are all factors . Remember those spelling tests we had to take back in elementary school? I hated them with a passion but they helped me. Oddly enough I was positive that "turkey " was spelled "churkey". It's the way I heard everyone say it, so I wrote that d own on my paper and was upset when it got marked wrong. But I took that lesson a nd I have never spelled it incorrectly since. The same thing happened with "libr ary". I called it the "liberry", and spelled it that way too. The most common pr oblem with incorrect spelling is that students write words the way they hear the m, forgetting that people pronounce things differently or incorrectly. Whoever w ould have thought that "receive" would be spelled that way? I certainly misspell ed it until I learned the little rhyme I' before E', except after C'. Or as long A' like neighbor' and weigh'. But I am sure that other students didn't learn th is rhyme, as apparent by the incorrect spellings of ie' words in their papers to day. So part of the problem is that students didn't learn when they were younger, and some of the blame may lay with the teachers. Some classes may have been so larg e that teachers didn't realize that certain students had spelling problems. Late r, some teachers didn't care. Test scores that are reported are really all that matter in this day, so teachers found a way for the students to do extra credit or simply marked off minor points for spelling errors and solved that problem. B ad spelling happens the same way that a child graduating from high school being unable to read happens. Teachers aren't paying attention or don't care. Reading, or not reading I should say, is also a big part of the problem. In an a ge filled with other things to do such as watch TV, play computer or video games , or simply participate in sports, reading takes a back seat. Students who read constantly learn new vocabulary constantly. And as they learn new vocabulary, th ey use it in everyday speech and in their papers, and learn how to spell it. If students don't read, and many of them don't, they won't know how to spell the wo rds that their classmates may learn. The computer was obviously a big improvement over the typewriter when it came to writing papers. Even better is the spell check. Students should always use the spell check before turning their papers in, as it helps spot errors the students didn't know were there. However, this causes a problem because most students do n't really look at what the spell check fixes. They simply see that there is an error, and correct it. They don't look at it and say, "Oh, I didn't realize it w as spelled that way. Next time I'll remember." If they did, they would learn fro m it and their spelling would improve. Instant messaging, text messaging, and em ailing are also part of the problem. They are all meant to be quick ways to comm unicate, and so letters are dropped from words to make them smaller. Students do this so often, and repeat the same thing so often, that eventually they think w ords are spelled that way. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY The data to be used in this research are the scores of the participants in their spelling test to decide whether the interventions of utilizing technology made such significant effects in their performance on spelling. A test on spelling wa s used to find out the ability level of the students in this research study. The test has a total number of 30 most misspelled words to be spelled-out. It was a lso made through dictation of words to be spelled by the students themselves, wh ich tested their abilities and skills in remembering, recognizing and understand ing words which is the focus of their study. Based on the areas of weakness thro ugh the use of a spelling test, the interventions showed a great impact on their performance. The spelling test was given by the end of their classes, and just right after they had finished answering the questions on how often they use such technology that they have cited to evaluate their levels on spelling having tho se interventions. The acquired scores during that certain examination test were also recorded to check their skills on spelling along the process. Students also

participated well during our survey.

CHAPTER IV STATISTICAL TREATMENT

CHAPTER V DATA FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION As part of this survey, the following graphical representation of the causes of their difficulty was obtained. Figure 1 Causes of difficulty Frequency Poor beginners foundation No regular follow ups of lesson No adequate drill lessons/practices Misuse of technology Legend: = 1 participant Figure 1 shows that the misuse of technology has the highest frequency with no r egular follow ups of lessons as the lowest. These data had helped us in planning on how we shall conduct our survey. It was also a source of confidence that the participants are all willing to experience what we planned for them. Based on our data analyses and interpretation, we will be presenting the followi ng results of our study. These data were verified through surveys answered by th e participants themselves, direct observations and interviews to the participant s, and results of their test. Our main purpose was to know the performance of the participants. We used their scores to be analyzed. The following tables shows the data needed for the formul a to be used. Student Spelling Scores Dacir, Nelsie 6 Labay, Mary Joy 22 Sargentu, Maricel 10 Cilot, Anniesyl 12 Palma, Ma. Kris 14 Botilo, Joan 14 Diaz, Edna 9 Clado, Angie 5 Candel, Donna Salve 12

Hipolito, Jennica Brosas, Aireen 5 Cillan, Arnel 9 Manrique, Shieree Jane Canale, ShillaJhane Narvaja, Cyrene 7 Leoncito, Francia Camata, Anabel 10 Bora, Gladys 11 Coper, Maicy 12 Rielago, Jerain 15

15 9 8 5

Using the appropriate formula for getting the Mean Score (x)/N where x scores of the respondents N number of respondents Figure 2 Figure 2 shows that 85% of the participants failed in the task, 10% we re in the average level and only 5% passed. This only shows that s pelling should be given emphasis to lessen the spelling difficulty in our school. Figure 3 Most misspelled words tomorrow rendezvous hygiene 8 miscellaneous receipt 11 rhythm 16 pronunciation pseudonym usherette disease 16 fluorescent dissatisfied chauffeur buffet 5 physician carousel cynosure denouement conscience baccalaureate occasion boulevard xylem 6 ewe 2 bouquet 10 pamphlet measles 9 superintendent bizarre 5 pneumonia

Frequency 18 90 1 5 4 9 45 55 80 2 10 1 5 0 0 80 2 10 16 80 0 0 25 20 100 1 5 0 0 0 0 14 70 1 5 5 25 10 50 30 10 50 8 40 45 4 20 25 8 40

Percentage

Figure 3 table shows the percentage of the participants that got the correct spelling for each number. Based from the results, all participa nts got the perfect spelling of physician which is a very common wor

d to everybody and the word tomorrow. The third rank where ntage is 80 are the words rhythm, disease, and dissatisfied more difficult than the former words. Furthermore, the word e is just 70% and almost one-half of them got the correct of the words boulevard and bouquet.

the perce which are conscienc spelling

The researchers would like to recommend that a further study about the effect of technologies in the spelling performance of students would be done in a longer period of time with a larger number of respondents who should be observed in an adequate period of time. To develop a foundation for spelling success and strengthen spelling skills the student needs to: Develop Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic awareness (PA) is critical to spel ling development. The child needs to be able to recognize and distinguish the sounds within spoken words in order to then translate these sounds back to print . If the child has a phonemic weakness, you need to help that child strengthen t heir phonemic awareness with PA training. The great news is that research proves PA training has strong and significant effects on reading and spelling developme nt (National Reading Panel). Understand phonemic nature of spelling: The student needs to understand written English is based on a phonemic code. In other words printed black squigg les represent sounds in the word. Learn the phonemic code: The student needs to learn the complete phonem ic code. The English phonemic code is complex and the student needs to learn the complete code in order to handle these complexities. The student needs to learn the code systematically beginning with the basic code and then adding the compl exities with vowel combinations, r-controlled combinations and other intricacies . Although there is code overlap (more than one way to write a sound), irregular and unexpected spellings, English is based on this phonemic code. Approach the process of spelling phonemically: The student needs to base their spelling on converting the sounds in the spoken word into print. They nee d to write the phonemic code for the sounds in the word. Spelling needs to be ap proached as recoding sound to print. Once again phonemic awareness is a critical skill. The child must have the phonemic awareness to recognize and distinguish the sounds within words. If your child has a phonemic weakness, you need to help the child strengthen their phonemic awareness. Acquire knowledge of spelling patterns and learn helpful guidelines: The student needs to learn and practice the common spelling patterns that are used in English. There are also guidelines that can help us learn correct spelling. While there are exceptions and irregularities most words follow common patterns. There are also a number of helpful guidelines to aid us in accurate spelling. C hildren are better able to achieve spelling success when they learn and practice these common patterns and helpful guidelines. Learn/memorize specific and tricky' spellings: For accurate spelling the st udent does need to learn the correct spelling for common words and begin memoriz ing the specific spelling pattern used for particular words. Accurate spelling c an be tricky and does require remembering which spelling pattern is used within certain words.

Conducting this research is very necessary in our study as well as to the freshm en students. The title itself, the spelling difficulty of freshmen students of T CC in utilization of technology this year shows a great effort to find the genui ne result and possible recommendations to the problem. It is necessary for the r eason that it should be given an attention to hasten the students' difficulty in s pelling. Seriously, we are satisfied on our work and findings although some stud

ents fail to reach our expectations in their spelling abilities but there were o thers who tried to get at least one-half of the items in the spelling exam that we conducted. We are humble to say that we truly got the students interest about this problem. We highly recommend the adequate use of time in using technologie s and the proper way of writing the correct words to lessen students' difficulty i n spelling.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS: The Spelling Book: Teaching how to spell not what to spell, Gladys Rosen crans American Bee, James Maguire WEBSITES: http://englishspellingproblems.co.uk/ www.audiblox2000.com/spelling-help.htm www.ldonline.org/article/c653/ www.dyslexia-teacher.co.uk/t7.html www.rowenahardingsmith.com.au/Spelling.html http://www.dyslexia-at-bay.com/index.php?Itemid=22&id=13&layout=blog&option=com_ content&view=category http://www.vocabulary.co.il/kids-who-have-difficulty-spelling-find-help-with-sof tware/ http://www.speld-sa.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=1 22

LIST OF FIRST YEAR RESPONDENTS

Bora, Gladys Botilo, Joan Brosas, Aireen Camata, Anabel Canale, Shilla Jhane Candel, Donna Salve Cillan, Arnel Cilot, Anniesyl Clado, Angie Coper, Maicy Dacir, Nelsie Diaz, Edna Hipolito, Jennica Labay, Mary Joy Leoncito, Francia

Manrique, Shieree Jane Narvaja, Cyrene Palma, Ma. Kris Rielago, Jerain Sargentu, Maricel

SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE The Spelling Difficulty of First Year BEED students of Tiwi Community College in Utilization of Technology for Academic year 2011-2012 Name: _____________________________________________________________________ Age: _______________________________ Gender: ________________________________ Year & Section ______________________________________________________________ Part I Put a check on your answer. Numbers 3, 6, 7 and 9 can have 2 or more answers. How many hours do you spend in using cellular phone in one day? ______1 hour ______5-8 hours ______whole day ______ 2-5 hours ______8-10 hours ______others pls . specify Which social networking site/s do you usually use in chatting? ______facebook ______skype ______others pls. specif y ______twitter ______friendster Which among the following gadgets do you have at home? ______cellular phone ______laptop ______others pls. specify ______computer ______apod How many times do you load your phone just to chat with your friends? ______once a week ______1 week ______3 weeks ______1-3 times a week ______2 weeks ______1 month ______others pls. specify How many times do you use the computer in a week? ______1-2 days ______3-4 days ______5-6 days ______2-3 days ______4-5 days ______ 1 week Why do you use your phone? ______for emergency purposes ______hear music ______ keep in touch with friends ______play games ______internet surfing ______watching video/s Why do you often use computer? ______research ______make projects _______edit(video,pic) ______chat with friends ______encode ______play online games ______download(games,music,video etc.) In presenting projects, outputs, handouts etc. which do you prefer? ______computerized ______hand written ______type written People whom you sent messages to ______family and other relatives ______text mates ______no cp ______friends ______clan mates ______classmates ______others pls. specify Cite some possible remedies to avoid writing misspelled words. ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________ Give at least 2-3 effects on writing with the excessive use of technolog y ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ What do you think are the positive contributions of technology in writin g? ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________ Part II Spell the words correctly. Write your answer below.

CURRICULUM VITAE Name: Fidelis Socorro Salve A. Clerigo Address: P-1 Sinimbahanan, Baybay, Tiwi Albay Date of Birth: June 27, 1992 Place of Birth: Cormidal, Tabaco City Citizenship: Filipino Religion: Catholic Civil status: Single

Parents:

Nelson Clerigo Sede A. Clerigo

Educational Attainment College: Tiwi Community College Tiwi, Albay High school: Saint Louise de Marrilac School of Tabaco Ziga Avenue Bombon Tabaco City Elementary: Tabaco North Central Elementary School Bombon, Tabaco City Name: Vicky Condino Address: Joroan, Tiwi Albay Date of Birth: May 5, 1993 Place of Birth: Joroan, Tiwi Albay Citizenship: Filipino Religion: Catholic Civil status: Single Parents: Arsenio Condino Aida Condino Educational Attainment College: Tiwi Community College Tiwi, Albay High school: Naga National High School Naga, Tiwi, Albay Elementary: Joroan Elementary School Joroan, Tiwi, Albay Name: Gigi Canufin Address: Sugcad, Malinao Albay Date of Birth: January 28, 1993 Place of Birth: Libjo, Tiwi Albay Citizenship: Filipino Religion: Catholic Civil status: Single Parents: Diosdado Canufin Marites Canufin Educational Attainment College: Tiwi Community College Tiwi, Albay High school: Malinao National High School Balza, Malinao, Albay Elementary: Sugcad Elementary School Sugcad, Malinao, Albay