EFL TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS SPELLING DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY SUDANESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating spelling difficulties encountered by Sudanese university students of English. The aims of this study are; drawing teachers’ attention to the importance of English spelling; reflecting the unconventional relation between spelling system and phonetic system. Investigating the reasons behind spelling errors encountered by students of English. The researcher has followed the quantitative analytical method to analyze the results. Only one tool was used for data collection and analyses, teachers’ questionnaire (TQ). The obtained results led the researcher to suggest that, teachers must show the main differences between American spelling and the British one. Using computer games may help a lot in solving spelling mistakes. The results achieved in this study: the investigation showed that the students found difficulty regarding the formulation of Latin and Greek plural forms, Vowels letters replacement is consistent error committed by the students. First L1 interference is one of the reasons behind some spelling errors committed by the students. These findings encouraged the researcher forwards to present some suggestions for further studies.