MARY ANNE B.

ARGUELLES
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
CAWAYAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL CARLES, ILOILO
LLE 202, Assignment 2

Relationship of Spelling to Reading Performance

I. Annotation of Articles (5-8)

Article 1 –
Relationship Between Reading and Spelling Abilities Among Elementary School Students of
Punjab
Bibliography:
Rekha (2014, March). Relationship Between Reading and Spelling Abilities Among Elementary
School Students of Punjab. Retrieved from www.impactjournals.us

Summary

According to Ehri (2005) and Katzir, Kim, and Wolf (2006), English spelling knowledge
emerges in two ways: through the ability to recognize and map spelling patterns and through repeated
exposure to the words. This study was developed in the Punjab, India where people are using English
as a second language. Through this study they were able to make an analysis on how spelling affects
the reading comprehension of their students. The study was able to achieve a positive correlation
between the reading comprehension and spelling abilities of the students. The analysis of the results
from the study formed the following conclusion: Reading results in the establishment of graphical
forms of words in the memory which results in production of correct spellings. Those students who
cannot read properly are also those who cannot spell these words correctly. This study used the
Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and it rejected the null hypothesis, namely “There is no
significant relationship between the reading comprehension and spelling abilities of 4 th Grade
students.”

Article 2 –
The Relationship Between Spelling Ability and Reading Fluency and Comprehension Among
Elementary Students
Bibliography:
Johnson, M. M. (2013, December). The Relationship Between Spelling Ability and Reading Fluency
and Comprehension Among Elementary Students. Retrieved from http://www.nmu.edu

Summary

The relevant relationship between spelling and reading is so close that investigators believe
that learning about spelling tends to enhance a student’s reading proficiency. Learning about spelling
contributes to reading development, including children’s ability to pronounce words correctly and
decode unknown words (Adams, 1990). This research study resulted to the following summary and
conclusion- that those students who are struggling with spelling are also struggling with reading.
Through this research work, researchers were able to identify that spelling has a very strong impact on
reading comprehension and fluency. These researchers had also made a conclusion that students who
are good spellers are also considered as good readers. The development of the research study was
based on theoretical model integrating the ability of the students to spell and his/her ability to read
fluently and comprehend what he/she had read. This research study was conducted to elementary
students in Michigan, U.S.A., which uses English as its first language.

Article 3 –
How Spelling Supports Reading
Bibliography:
Moats, L. C. (2005). How Spelling Supports Reading. Retrieved from http://www.aft.org

Summary

According to Moats (2006) research indicates that spelling supports reading for young
children and for older ones, it is the meaningful relationship between words that can contribute to the
abundance of their vocabulary and the improvement on their reading comprehension skills. The
author discussed the key contents that should be emphasized in each year level so that students can
perform well in both spelling and reading. The author also discussed the different strategies that can
be used in the performance of reading and spelling tasks. She had also shown a timeline of the English
language that started with the Old English, followed y Middle English and the Modern English.
She also reiterated that writers who must think too hard on how to spell use up valuable cognitive
resources needed for higher level aspects of composition (Singer and Bashir, 2004). It may, therefore,
be concluded that those people who possess billions of words in their vocabulary banks are considered
better writers compared to those people who only possess hundreds or thousands or even millions in
their own treasury of words.

Article 4 –
Longitudinal Relationships between Reading and Spelling in Early Elementary Grades: Testing
Causality Using a Cross-Lagged Panel Design
Bibliography:
Forrester, E. P. (2013). Longitudinal Relationships between Reading and Spelling in Early Elementary
Grades: Testing Causality Using a Cross-Lagged Panel Design. Retrieved from
http://www.escholarship.org

Summary

This is a research study conducted by Ekaterina Petrovna Forrester and done with the purpose
of examining the stages of reading-spelling development and directionality of specific knowledge
acquisition as suggested by Uta Frith’s model (1985). The researcher reiterated that this study gave
information on the theoretical models of reading-spelling development in developing children and
struggling readers. It discussed the stages in reading and spelling development specifically the
Logographic, Alphabetic and Orthographic stages. The study was conducted to students of different
races- Hispanics, African-Americans, and Caucasian. The research study resulted to the following
conclusion- that the relationship between reading and spelling is a complex relationship from a
combination of early literacy skills and that reading words is a significant longitudinal predictor of
spelling. The study used a lot of statistical analysis so the researcher will be able to get an accurate
result and this was done meticulously as the research had progressed.
Article 5 –
Spelling Knowledge and Reading Development: Insights from Arab ESL Learners
Bibliography:
Fender, M. (2008). Spelling Knowledge and Reading Development: Insights from Arab ESL Learners.
Retrieved from http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu

Summary

The research study was presented to examine the relationship between reading skills and
spelling proficiency of intermediate-level ESL Learners from the Arab countries as well as those from
non-Arab learners. The researcher in this study used statistical data analysis like ANOVA in order to
acquire a more competent result. The result of this research study showed that Arab ESL Learners
scored much lower on spelling knowledge and reading comprehension skills than non-Arab Learners.
It was discovered that Arab learners have better auditory perspective or listening skills compared to
reading and spelling skills. It can, therefore, be concluded that Arab learners have much slower
progress when it comes to spelling and fluency in reading. The researcher of this study brought into
consideration the first language of Arab ESL learner and also gave the input necessary for comparing
Arab learners to non-Arab learners and had, thus, gathered a concrete and concise result.

II. Synthesis

The five topics mentioned above are all centered into one concrete dilemma- that spelling
efficacy must always be coincidental with reading fluency; therefore, a good reader must also be a
good speller. Reading and spelling must always go together and both of these must be possessed in
order for one to become an outstanding academic performer in the English language; however, there
were thousands of reasons as to why a reader cannot be a good speller; thus, literacy is poorly
attained. Some strategies were enumerated though, so these strategies must be applied to spelling and
reading literacy especially on 21st Century learners who are corrupted by the erroneous influence of
shortened text messaging.

Five articles were discussed and amongst these five articles, there are some that are identical
in some ways. Take for example these two articles, namely, Relationship Between Reading and
Spelling Abilities Among Elementary School Students of Punjab and Spelling Knowledge and Reading
Development: Insights from Arab ESL Learners are alike in a sense that these two articles focused on
English Language Learners coming from nations that do not use English as first language. Therefore,
it can be assessed (even before reading these two articles) that the result will not be entirely positive
since English is not spoken as first language by the research subjects or the demography mentioned in
the research study. The other two articles, The Relationship Between Spelling Ability and Reading
Fluency and Comprehension Among Elementary Students and Longitudinal Relationships between
Reading and Spelling in Early Elementary Grades: Testing Causality Using a Cross-Lagged Panel
Design both focus on young English learners that use English as their first language and therefore,
exhibited more positive results. The third article, How Spelling Supports Reading, on the other hand,
teaches us on how to deal with strategies that can be useful in order for our learners to become better
when it comes to spelling and reading performance.
III. Reflective Essay

I daresay I have learned a lot from this second assignment. I have learned that I can depend on myself
more that I can imagine. I believe I have exerted all my effort and extracted all my wits (or what’s left
in my tired cerebrum due to the humdrums of senior high school evaluation and the rigors caused by
preparing grades, all kinds of forms, etc.).

Literacy is not based on what you have learned in school. It is based on what you know that can be
applied to your everyday life in the academe. A literate reader, therefore, is a good speller. Give your
son or daughter a Merriam Dictionary the moment he/she started to read and I can tell (through my
own experience), that in the future, that son/daughter of yours shall become a prolific English
language writer.

Filipino students in a public school setting is what my life as a teacher is dealing with and, honestly,
we can only count using our hands and feet those students who are capable of spelling words correctly
and reading them without hesitation. The public schools do not have the posh educational materials
and facilities and sophisticated environment exuded by private schools but we have the posh brains
and intellectual capacity of mentors who are not only capable of catching stars but also fishing the
moon out of its nesting place. I believe that English teachers must always bear in mind that reading
with vigor, enthusiasm and accuracy is something that we, the public school mentors must pass on to
our students. It is therefore, a necessity that we teachers in the public school (specifically, the senior
high school- of which I am currently part of) must shower our students with educational materials that
we ourselves must provide; however, I have a crazy belief that, one day, our government can provide
one Merriam Webster dictionary per student in the elementary level (if only that is, indeed, possible).