Spelling Ability in College Students Predicted by Decoding, Print Exposure, and Vocabulary

Abstract

This study examines students’ exposure to print, vocabulary and decoding as predictors of spelling skills. Participants were 42 college students (Mean age 22.5, SD = 7.87; 31 females and 11 males). Hierarchical regression analyses showed that most of the variance in spelling was explained by vocabulary knowledge. When vocabulary was entered first into the regression model, exposure to print and decoding were no longer significant predictors. However, both decoding and print exposure were significant predictors of vocabulary. The three predictors together explained about 43 % of variance in spelling skills. Results suggest that an important source of individual differences in spelling knowledge arises from the acquisition of vocabulary words when decoding skill is applied to read words encountered during the wide reading of text.

KEYWORDS:

• college students
• decoding skill
• exposure to print
• predictors of spelling ability
• self-teaching
• vocabulary knowledge

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Gratitude is expressed to Professor David Rindskopf for statistical advice, to Professor Alpana Bhattacharya for suggestions regarding the conduct of the study, and to Robin O’Leary for assistance in preparing materials.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Turkan Ocal

Turkan Ocal, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She earned her PhD in educational psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research interests include learning disabilities, multisensory teaching methods, sight word learning, exposure to print, vocabulary acquisition, and factors that are relevant to reading and spelling skills of students.

Linnea Ehri

Linnea Ehri, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has conducted research on reading processes, their acquisition, and causes of reading difficulties. Her findings reveal the importance of letter-sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and orthographic mapping for reading and spelling words from memory. She was a member of the National Reading Panel charged by the U.S. Congress to identify the most effective methods for teaching reading. She was president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. She has received research awards from professional organizations.