The effects of spelling games on the orthographic abilities of 3rd grade young efl learners

Learning a language requires acquiring a complex and four-language-skills-integrated process and students must practice all of them because a target language cannot be accepted as fully-learned with the absence of a skill. However, in the latest version of primary and secondary schools English lesson curriculum, the focus in mainly on the listening and speaking skills, while the activities involving reading and writing are at the word level and very limited. Moreover, as the L1 (Turkish) and L2 (English) orthographies are highly different from each other, the students spelling attempts result mostly in failures. In literature, the subject of spelling is discussed based on the differences between L1s and L2 (English) and the reasons of misspellings; however, no treatment is suggested yet. This study aims to investigate the effects of spelling games on the orthographic abilities of 3rd grade young EFL learners in a Turkish primary school context. An experimental research design was used to conduct the study with 42 3rd grade students: 21 experimental and 21 control. The 56-target vocabulary was selected according to the curriculum and used in weekly and overall dictations. Three spelling games were adopted from Graham, Freeman and Miller (1981), applied experimental group each week through the 13-week-process. After the implementation, the collected data was analyzed quantitatively. The results were examined in terms of participants' and target vocabulary correct spelling rates and the experimental group got higher results in both. Moreover, the difference between experimental and control group was statistically significant. In the light of the findings, it is inferred that the spelling games are affecting the orthographic abilities of students positively. Key Words: Dictation, Orthography, Spelling Games, Young Learners