Spelling omissions in the final grades of Elementary School I

• Grant number: 24/08183-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Lourenço Chacon Jurado Filho
• Grantee: Patrícia Rufino dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Searching for a better understanding of the importance of phonetic-phonological aspects of language in a phenomenon that is quite common in the spelling of children in the final years of Elementary School, I will investigate spelling omissions in relation to syllable structure. Two objectives guide the research: (1) seeing to what extent omissions depend (nor not) on the different positions that graphemes occupy in the syllable structure; and (2) seeing to what extent omissions depend (or not) on school grade. The data will be extracted from a database made up of the written productions of children of both sexes, aged between six and nine, regularly enrolled in a public school in a city of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. From this database, the productions of children in the 4th and 5th grades (between eight and ten years old) will be analyzed. To analyze the data relating to the first objective, I will compare the total number of possible orthographic registers for each position and the total number of omissions for each position in all the analyzed material. In this way, I will be able to confirm (or not) my first hypothesis: that since the syllable, in Selkirk's (1982) view, has a hierarchical organization of constituents, this difference in organization will also be shown in the greater or lesser incidence of orthographic omissions. In order to analyze the data relating to the second objective, they will first be divided according to whether they occur in the fourth or fifth year of Elementary School. Then, I will make a comparative analysis of the distribution of this data according to the investigated grades. In this way, I will be able to confirm (or not) my second research hypothesis: that with the progression of school grades, omissions will change in quantity and nature. This research aims to provide information for pedagogical and clinical practices with children's writing.