Spelling development in Turkish: Phonological encoding and rapid naming skills in first and second graders

The present study explored spelling development of Turkish- speaking children in grades 1 and 2. It was designed to investigate the predictors of word spelling and reading skills and the developmental relationship between spelling and reading abilities. In particular, the role of phonological encoding (PE) skills and rapid automatized naming (RAN) in reading and spelling was examined. Besides, children's spelling errors in word and text level were investigated in terms of different task modality (copying vs. dictation). A total of 71 students attending Grade 1 and 2 participated in the study. Data were gathered through a battery of tests and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the performance of the first and second graders in PE and word spelling skills although the second graders performed significantly better in RAN and word reading tests. In addition, multiple regression analyses showed that PE was a significant predictor of spelling skills while RAN was a strong predictor of reading skills in Turkish. Besides, PE significantly contributed to the reading skills of the second graders while it did not account for significant amounts of variance in word reading ability of the first graders. The findings of the qualitative analysis of spelling errors showed a variety of error patterns across task modalities, however, they were found not to be significantly different across Grade 1 and 2.