Emma Villanueva and research partner Lacey Simpson analyzing Woodcock-Johnson spelling tests in the Literacy Lab
Author: Emma Villanueva | Major: Communication Disorders
Analyzing the under-researched topic of spelling patterns among individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing has been a rewarding experience that I believe is beneficial to our language and communication-based society. For those who may be unfamiliar with this type of research, my team and I are currently analyzing Woodcock Johnson spelling test data taken from students at a school for individuals who are d/hh. We will be running these tests through a multi-linguistic coding system that categorizes spelling errors in linguistic categories. (MLC coding table provided below). Spelling is an essential part of academic communication, and to identify and learn about certain spelling errors that fall within the five domains of language (phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) in this community will help future researchers and educators target these errors so that learning to spell can be more accessible for this community. This research is not only applicable to the world outside of academia but important given that written communication is so prevalent in everyday life, and spelling is a major part of that communication.
Multi-linguistic coding table
| Linguistic Category | Defining Characteristics and Examples |
| Phonological errors (PA)
•Errors of SOUND
|
•omission or addition of phonemes not in the word
•maximally different incorrect representations of vowels (“o” for “a”; “u” for “e”) |
| Orthographic Pattern Awareness Errors (OPA)
•Errors of regular PATTERNS
|
•incorrect consonant substitutions (d/t; n/m; s/tch)
•rules for combining letters (“kry” for “cry”; “jrum” for “drum”) •patterns that govern spelling (“ran” for “rain” ; “lader” for “ladder”) |
| Mental Graphemic Representation Errors (MGR)
•Errors of IRREGULARITY (you just have to memorize the word) |
•correct “phonetic” spelling of non-phonetic words (“cidy” for “city”)
•incorrect spelling of unstressed syllables (“buckit” for “bucket”) |
| Morphological Awareness Errors
•Errors of MODIFICATION |
•incorrect use of morphemes
•wrong tense is represented (“walk” for “walked”) |
| Semantic Awareness Errors (SA)
•Errors of MEANING |
•suffix modification errors represent another word (“fry” for “fried”; “drive” for drivers”)
•wrong word used (“cried” for “cries”) |
When I first entered the honors program, I had a meeting with our department head, Dr. Rachel Glade, who was incredibly helpful to my experience. She explained to me each Professor and what type of research they conducted, and while all were interesting in their own unique ways, I gravitated toward Dr. Lisa Bowers’ work with children’s literacy. I ended up meeting with Dr. Bowers to ask if there was room in her lab, and I could tell she was so enthusiastic about her current research and she was happy to have me as well as one other student on her team. She has been an incredible mentor and has taught me a lot about the theoretical bases of literacy. I plan to work with children who have articulation/fluency disorders as a future clinician and believe this research will be beneficial to that work.
Through my research, I have learned that spelling in the deaf and hard of hearing community is a newer research topic and not a lot is known about the literacy education within it. I have observed that the methods these students use to spell are fascinating given that they are bilingual in ASL and English (there is often a connection seen between the two in their spelling) and I hope to learn more about them as I continue my research. Exploring these unique spelling theories and methods has enabled me to use critical thinking in a research lab, which is something I hadn’t done before this process. My research has truly allowed me to go beyond the traditional academic experience of memorizing/being tested on information and instead attempting to find new information through data analysis and research of my topic. Because of how new this type of experience is to me, it has been challenging at times. Crafting a traditional academic Thesis has proven to be a different style of writing than I am used to and explaining the research process in writing hasn’t been easy. However, Dr. Glade, my faculty mentor, has provided a Blackboard Course filled with an abundance of resources on how to craft these papers and be a successful researcher. My research partner, Lacey Simpson, has also been a great source of accountability for me during this process. We often discuss our research and make sure we document the correct data.
Our team hopes to present at a convention such as ArkSHA or ASHA when we have all of our findings. For now, we are focusing on running our data through the MLC system and making sense of the results before we conclude anything about our topic or research community. I am very hopeful that we will find something unique through our research about the spelling patterns, methods and errors about the deaf and hard of hearing community and cannot wait to share my findings with the Honors College in the near future.