ABSTRACT

Purpose

Using data from 1,868 children from the US, Australia, and Sweden who took a 10-word spelling test in kindergarten and a standardized spelling test in Grades 1, 2, and (except for the Australian children) Grade 4, we examined two questions. First, does the quality of a child’s errors on the kindergarten test help predict later spelling performance even after controlling for the number of correct responses on the kindergarten test? Second, does spelling develop at a faster pace in Swedish than in English?

Method

We measured kindergarten error quality based on the number of letter additions, deletions, and substitutions by which each error differed from the correct spelling. Using mixed-model analyses, we examined the relationship of this and other variables to later spelling performance.

Results

Kindergarten error quality contributed significantly to the prediction of later spelling performance even after consideration of the number of correct spellings in kindergarten and other relevant variables. The Swedish children showed more rapid growth in spelling than the U.S. and Australian children, a difference that may reflect the greater transparency of sound-to-spelling links in Swedish.

Conclusion

Information from a spelling test that is typically discarded – information about the nature of the errors –has value.

中文翻译：

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根据美国、澳大利亚和瑞典儿童的幼儿园拼写来预测以后的拼写

摘要

目的

使用来自美国、澳大利亚和瑞典的 1,868 名儿童的数据，他们在幼儿园参加了 10 个单词的拼写测试，并在一年级、二年级和四年级（澳大利亚儿童除外）参加了标准化拼写测试，我们检查了两个问题。首先，即使在控制了幼儿园测试中正确答案的数量之后，孩子在幼儿园测试中的错误质量是否有助于预测以后的拼写表现？其次，瑞典语的拼写发展速度是否比英语更快？

方法

我们根据每个错误与正确拼写不同的字母添加、删除和替换的数量来衡量幼儿园的错误质量。使用混合模型分析，我们检查了该变量和其他变量与后期拼写表现的关系。

结果

即使考虑了幼儿园正确拼写的数量和其他相关变量，幼儿园错误质量对以后拼写表现的预测也有显着贡献。瑞典儿童的拼写增长速度比美国和澳大利亚儿童更快，这一差异可能反映出瑞典语中声音与拼写之间的联系更加透明。

结论

通常被丢弃的拼写测试信息（有关错误性质的信息）具有价值。