Development of spelling skills in grade 4

Effects of an integrated and differentiated pedagogical approach

Abstract

In the context of this study, a pedagogical approach was developed which integrates spelling instruction into meaningful writing tasks. This approach was then tested in the classroom over a period of twelve weeks by four Grade 4 teachers who had received training to this end. To explore the effects of this pedagogical approach on the development of students' spelling skills, an experimental group and a control group were created. The students in both these groups were given a pretest and a post-test which included a gap dictation and a narrative writing task. The results show that this pedagogical approach helped the students who benefited from it to improve their spelling ability, in particular, with regard to the morphographic dimension of spelling.