Improving spelling

The British University in Dubai (BUiD) recently completed a 250,000 word database of student-written English which will allow researchers to examine the spelling errors produced by secondary school students from the Ministry of Education schools in the UAE. Using this database, experts will be able to design materials to help students improve their spelling.

"The aim in developing an extensive resource is to examine the mistakes made by students and to identify what the common mistakes are. From this analysis, course book designers will be able to produce materials that will help children to learn English spelling effectively," said Dr Mick Randall, Dean of the Faculty of Education at BUiD.

Education experts have witnessed a growing concern among many people, employers, parents and teachers who complain about the spelling of Arabic speakers learning English.

In an initiative to determine what the problems are, BUiD and the ministry produced the database using written compositions produced by students who took retired versions of the CEPA (Common Educational Proficiency Assessment) exam.

The database contains a wide variety of student writing, from the weakest students through to those who are more proficient. This variation will enable the researchers to see which mistakes are common to all levels of students. There are many such data-bases of English produced by speakers of different languages, but none so far produced by Arabic speakers.

Another important feature is that the texts produced by the weaker learners have been tagged to show where they altered their writing by crossing words out or inserting words.

This will give researchers insights into what the children know about English and what they are able to correct themselves. BUiD intends to publish the corpus on the web to allow researchers from within the region and throughout the world to carry out research into learning English in the Arab world.