Previous studies on English spelling have investigated the types of spelling errors and their frequencies, and studies on why learners made those errors have been called for. This study aimed to identify factors leading to errors in the English-spelling of Korean elementary school students. The factors were investigated by using the following methods: A total of 130 students from O Elementary School were given three types of word-writing tasks: dictation of single words, dictation of short sentences, and writing words as many as the students can based on pictures depicting familiar scenes. The errors in their writing samples were classified into five types. The students were interviewed about why they made those errors. The results showed that the errors were influenced by the factors: the students’ first language, background knowledge, pronunciation, and morphological reasons. The results suggest that if teachers understood these factors, they would be able to explore better teaching methods for reducing errors in English spelling, and that future research could apply these factors for further investigations.

This study investigated spelling errors in English stories written by 206 students in an elementary school implementing Korean/English immersion education. Errors were analyzed using crosstab and MANCOVA. Findings are as follows. Spelling errors occurred in 4 categories in order from the most frequent to the least: substitution, omission, addition, and transposition. The error occurrences differed depending on grade level changes: lower grades (Grades 1-3) vs. higher grades (Grades 4-6). The students in both grade levels made more errors in substitution and omission: these error types were significantly decreased as they progressed to the higher grade levels. Errors in addition and transposition showed much fewer occurrences for both grade levels, and these errors did not show a significant decrease because of their rarer occurrences. Overall, the students’ spelling ability increased remarkably as they progressed in grade levels in the immersion environment.

Spelling is a complicated skill, which is difficult to acquire even for native language learners. During the early stages of learning to read, children use various orthographic strategies to spell and their spellings show different developmental characteristics. This present study examines Korean elementary school students" English spelling. This is a cross-sectional study: three hundred and fifty seven students" spelling data was collected from 4th, 5th and 6th grade students and analyzed for comparison from the developmental spelling view. The data was analyzed into two categories: accuracy of spelling at each grade and the children"s invented spellings. Results showed that the EFL children"s spellings have developmental features similar to native language learners or ESL learners. The fourth graders omitted vowels and substituted letter names instead of short vowels. As the grades increase, the salient features of spelling were changed; whereas the fourth graders showed low level achievement in CVVC words, the six graders" spelling presented increased achievement in the same category. However, they have different aspects in detail, e.g. Korean learners acquire diphthongs earlier than CVck, which is unusual compared to the native English learners. Finally, a conclusion was drawn from the data and instructional suggestions are provided.