Psychological Analysis on Students" Spelling Errors

申向晶

Abstract： The factors of spelling errors are not just a matter of memorization of words. It also has something to do with students temperament， character and anxiety. To enable students to remember English words correctly， teachers should take some principles into account illustrated in the essay.

Key words： Psychological Analysis， Spelling Errors

中圖分類號：H319.3

1. Introduction：

In the history of psychological study， language has always played a certain role. “The process of language acquisition is extremely a complex psychological one.”（Stern， 1997： 346） Why do the learners at the age of puberty make spelling errors？

2. Negative Effects of Psychological Factors：

2.1 Temperament and Character

And any kind of temperament has its positive effects and negative ones. The negative effect of the students temperament and character is one of the reasons to make spelling errors. According to research， temperament contains four types： blood quality， bile quality， mucus quality and depression quality. Different features of temperament causes various influences to ones emotion and behavior.The students who belong to bile quality are short-tempered， and do something without consideration. So they always make words spelling errors. And those who belong to depression quality have strongest imaginative power to create ambiguous spelling.

It is easy to find from students exercises and compositions that those who do something at will always omit letters. Their temperament nearly belongs to bloody quality or mucus quality.Being over self-confident， they may often write “whether”， “white” as “wether”， “wite” for they have no general views on the words begin with “wh”. Another example is that they often write the words “coat”， “light”， “ knife” as “ cote”， “lite”， “ nife”， because even though they have a basic idea about open syllable and the closed syllable， they do not know the complexity of the letter association. In fact， the morphological change of English words are very complex， those who write words follow their inclinations always make mistakes. For instance （right forms are in the brackets）， create –creater （creator）， mountain—mountainer （mountaineer）， lie—lier （liar）， describe—describtion （description）.

It is also found that some students often add letters. These students close to depression quality， who are indecisive and think too much. The following mistakes usually appear in those students exercise： pianoist （pianist）， trueth （truth）， deepth （depth）.

2.2 The negative effect of anxiety

Examining the matter from psychological angle， peoples memory is affected by many psychological factors. Because of psychological press， many students begin to doubt their ability， even be tired of learning English， considering vocabulary is the heavy burden. Then there will be a vicious circle： worrying about remembering ---making more spelling errors---much more worry. Finally， those students will give up remembering English words.

3. Principles in Words Teaching

3，1 Do some analysis to the words.

It is common that students made various kinds of words spelling errors， many of whom even made the same mistakes frequently as they usually do not take full account of their spelling errors. In this condition， teacher should help them to analyze the words spelling errors to intensify the memory of the words

3.2 Teach the words in associating ways

In order to remember words easily and clearly， teacher should train students to remember words in associating ways. Many psychological experiments have proved that people always associate some words with their similar words in semantics. So when teachers teach one certain word， they should teach the synonyms and antonyms of the words. Here are some examples： wet--damp—dry， old—aged—ancient—elder—elderly—young—new， king—queen—prince—princess. It is also proved that people always associate some words with their similar words in part of speech. In accordance with the rule， when teaches the word “run”， the teacher could review such sports-related words as “jump”， “walk”， “fly”， “swim”.

3.3 Help students to get rid of anxiety.

To the highly sensitive students， asking them not to be anxious directly tends to invalid or just opposite to what we wished. Hence teachers should use some actions such as facial expression and eye expression called psychological suggestions， which can make students relax.

Students can recall the words that they have learned more quickly and correctly and remember the words clearly when they are in a cheerful mood. Therefore， if students are nervous for a long time， teachers should divert these students attention to the relaxed， pleased activities. Many students consider learning English words as a heavy task. This is one of the reasons that they cannot get rid of anxiety. It is a well known fact that learning English words is a long-term and hard work. However， it could be easier to complete some specific jobs. Teachers should divert many words into small unit， then check the learning effect， giving the encouragement when students get any success.

4. Conclusion

To sum up， the psychology affected by their families， friends， schools and even the social environment. Peoples personalities are complex， and it is impossible that someone has only one kind of character or temperament. As a teacher， it is essential to study the students psychology to help them to decrease the spelling errors.

References：

[1]Stern， 1997， Fundamental Concept of Language Teaching， Oxford： Oxford University Press

[2]章永生，2000，教育心理與教學法，北京，高等教育出版社