Spelling Errors of Omani EFL Students: Causes and Remedies

The purpose of this study was to investigate the causes of the spelling errors students of
grade ten make and to explore the possible remedies for the treatment of the misspellings.
The sample of the study included 91 grade ten teachers in North Batinah and South Batinah
governorates in Oman. A questionnaire was designed to cover the causes and remedies.
The findings revealed that the highly rated causes of the misspellings as perceived by the
teachers were the complexity of the English spelling system, letter(s)’ combinations in
English, poor reading proficiency, students' carelessness, sounds that exist in English but not
in Arabic and the fact that sound-letter correspondence in English is not regular. The most
frequent suggestions for remedy of the spelling errors as perceived by grade ten teachers
were breaking long words into smaller parts, drawing students' attention to silent letters,
keeping personal dictionaries of challenging words, including tasks that stimulate both
sound-to-letter phonic spelling and spelling of irregular words, noting down the most
common spelling errors and praising the students for spelling difficult words correctly. In
light of the findings, the study presents some recommendations and suggestions for further
studies.