Investigating Iranian High School EFL Learnersꞌ Spelling Errors

Abstract

The present study investigated the types of spelling errors that Iranian high school EFL learners made. It also aimed at finding whether there is a significant difference in the number of occurrence of each type of spelling error. To attain the purpose of the study, 110 third grade high school students were selected to participate in this study. The participants took a dictation test. As the next step, the participantsꞌ spelling errors were classified according to Cookꞌs (1999) classification which includes omission errors, substitution errors, transposition errors, and insertion errors. The results demonstrated that the learners made omission errors more than other types of errors. The findings of this study also showed that the difference between the frequencies of errors was statistically different. The findings have implications for pedagogy as well as for further research.