Spelling Error Analysis and Teachers’ Written Corrective Feedback: The Case of First Year Students of the Department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou

Abstract

The present study explores spelling errors of EFL freshmen students of the Department of English at Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou. It aims to investigate the common spelling error types these students tend to make in their writings. It also tries to provide some remedial techniques to minimize such errors. The study focuses on the intralingual transfer of errors; that is to say, the spelling errors selected and analyzed are raised within the target language itself without relying on mother tongue or second language interference errors. In addition, it examines the importance of teachers’ provision with written corrective feedback. The study is based on Ellis’ Error Analysis Theory (1994) and his “Typology of Written Corrective Feedback Types” (2009). Moreover, it follows Corder’s classification (1973) of error types and Richards’s classification (1974) of the intralingual sources. The corpus includes fifty students’ examination samples of civilization and literature modules of the academic year 2018/2019 and a questionnaire administered to fifteen EFL teachers of the same modules. Hence, the two research instruments are used to collect qualitative and quantitative data for the sake of answering the research questions. The results show that students commit spelling errors in the four error types including omission, addition, misinformation and misordering. They also reveal that the ignorance of rule restrictions is the major factor in the occurrence of spelling errors besides incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized and overgeneralization of rules. Furthermore, EFL teachers point out the prominence of written corrective feedback in motivating students to be conscious of their errors and thus to produce less spelling errors. To minimize these errors, teachers suggest three remedy techniques namely intensive reading, practice of the oral and the written forms of the English language, and relying on hard copy dictionaries.