An investigation on the invented spellings of grade one children aged between 5-6 years old in a Hong Kong primary school

Abstract

The research conducted can be classified as an intrinsic case study, which sought to examine and analyse the invented spellings made by grade one children in primary school within the Hong Kong context. The research hopes to develop a better understanding of the common errors made by grade one children and the spelling development progress they underwent. One grade one class was chosen to participate in this research. They were required to provide their writing summative assessments they had completed during the course of the school year. There were four writing summative assessments for each child. In total, eighty samples were collected and five hundred and forty eight words were identified as invented spellings. The invented spellings were then given a score from a 10-point scale to determine the type of error that was made. From the results, it suggests that children’s spelling development is not fixed to a specific level, and that the spelling errors made can be attributed to the phonological differences between Cantonese and English.