Spelling performance of third grade students : a comparison of whole-language-plus-strategy instruction, strategy instruction only, and the whole language approach

摘要

This study investigated three methods for teaching children how to spell.Third grade students were divided into three conditions for a one-weektraining period consisting of 15- to 20-minute lessons. One of the twoexperimental conditions used a whole language approach along with explicitstrategy instruction. The second condition used strategy instruction within atraditional setting. The control used strictly a whole language approach tole~ing hOl to spell. The spelling perfonnance of all three conditionsimproved after the one-week training period. However, students in thestrategy instruction groups did significantly better on the study "'7ords thanthe whole language only group. The students in whole-Ianguage-plusstrateg)!instruction outperformed both other groups. Significantly betterspelling perfonnance was observed even at the nine-week posttest. Thisstudy frrst supported the hypothesis that children can make significantlygreater improven1ents in their spelling when explicitly taught how to usespelling strategies. Secondl)', this study indicated that whole languageprovided a relevant context for the study words, clearly giving the students inthe whole-Ianguage-plus-strategy condition an additional advantage.