LESSON 2:
A Second Look at Orthography in the Classroom – Research and Implications

Research and Data

In this section, you will be able to:

• Identify specific grapheme/morpheme groups that are most troublesome for heritage learners
• Identify orthographic issues where heritage students need support

Please have the following two documents with you as you progress through this lesson.

• Presentation slides (Powerpoint presentation)
• Cuadernillo Orthography (Word document)

In the previous section, we explored how orthographic issues we see in our classroom are a reflection of these same issues in society. We also viewed the multi-dimensionality of orthography as a social, cultural, and literary component. These are elements that must be considered in order to inform our understanding of such issues.

What does the research say about these issues regarding our heritage and monolingual students? In the following video, Dr. Bermejo explores this question.

Video: Research on Core Issues in Spanish Orthography

There is more research concerning monolingual students and orthography. In the relation to our heritage students, we can consider the orthographic epidemic we see in society as well as their exposure to literacy.

In the following video segment, Dr. Bermejo presents the results of the research where orthographic issues can be categorized into a manageable number of phonemes/graphemes.

Video: Research Data

Video: Research Conclusions

We can work in these critical areas where our students need more support.

Implications for Teaching

In this section you will be able to:

• Identify domain-specific competencies that are activated in orthographic processing
• Discuss the need for student agency in orthographic issues

In the previous section, we discussed how orthographic issues can be categorized and understood into specific groups. We know what our students bring and we have identified specific issues, now how do we translate this into our teaching? In this section, we will explore the different areas or domains of teaching that must be considered with orthography.

Video: Implication for Instruction

In the following video segment, Dr. Bermejo discusses some ways to foster engagement and agency in our students when it comes to orthographic issues.

Video: Agency in Students

There is a need for our students to know that in order to further develop their writing skills and especially in their orthography, they need to take ownership of their growth. Ultimately, we desire for our students to gain the ability to continue to evaluate their progress outside of the classroom. The intentionality as well as opportunities for reflection will be critical so that students will begin to actively notice these issues.

Video: Resources

Link to Cuadernillo.

Review Questions:

---

Module 2 Conclusions

Heritage speakers of Spanish are prone to struggle with orthographic issues which consist of accurate use of accents, correct identification of grapheme/morphemes, as well as other issues. Lesson 1 explored the greater scope of these orthographic issues that are ingrained into public society. As an example, issues with spelling is an issue that is evident across many cultures. Orthographic issues serve as a social component as it can directly affect social reputation, as well as a form of identity and literacy.

There is more research concerning orthography in the area of second language acquisition but heritage language research is gradually emerging. Critical areas in orthographic issues can be reduced to a number of grapheme and morpheme inconsistencies. There continues to be issues in accentuation as many educators predicted. Students are to be encouraged to be actively noticing spelling and structures to aid in visualization.

We then explored the teaching implications based on the research which include the activation of various domain-specific competencies in learning. When it comes to learning, we are to foster student agency in relation to awareness, reflection, and visualization of orthographic issues.

Help us make improvements and apply for grant funding by providing feedback in our survey.

---

References

• Backhoff Escudero E., Peon Zapata M., Andrade Muñoz E., & Rivera López S. 2008. La ortografía de los estudiantes de educación básica en México. Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación. México DF. http://www.oei.es/pdf2/ortografia_estudiantes_basica_mexico.pdf.
• Beaudrie, S. 2012. “A Corpus-Based Study on The Misspellings of Spanish Heritage Learners and Their Implications for Teaching.” Linguistics and Education 23: 135–144.
• Beaudrie, S. 2017. “The Teaching and Learning of Spelling in the Spanish Heritage Language Classroom: Mastering Written Accent Marks.” Hispania 100 (4): 596–611.
• Beaudrie, S. 2018. “On the relationship between self-concept and literacy development in the Spanish heritage language context.’ Read. Writ. Q. 34, 147–159.
• Bedwell, P., Domínguez,A., Sotomayor, C., Gómez, G., & Jéldrez, E. 2014. Caracterización de problemas ortográficos recurrentes en alumnos de cuarto básico. Santiago de Chile: CIAE, Universidad de Chile.
• Belpoliti, F., & Bermejo, E. 2019. Spanish Heritage Learners Emerging Literacy. London: Routledge.
• Bowles, M.A. 2018. “Outcomes of classroom Spanish heritage language instruction. “In The Routhledge Handbook of Spanish as A Heritage Language, ed. K. Potowski, 331-344. London: Routledge.
• Brown, A. 1990. “A Review of Recent Research on Spelling.” Educational Psychology Review 2 (4): 265–397.
• Burgo, C. 2015. “Current Approaches to Orthography Instruction for Spanish Heritage Learners: An Analysis of Intermediate and Advanced Textbooks.” Normas 5: 133–152.
• Cánovas Cánovas, M. 2017. “La ortografía en secundaria y bachillerato: análisis de los errores más frecuentes en letras.” Tejuelo, 26, 5-40.
• Carrasco, H., Amengual, M., & Gries, S.T. 2019. Cross-language effects of phonological and orthographic similarity in cognate word recognition: the role of language] dominance. Linguist. Appro. Bilingual. 1–29.
• Carratalá Teruel, F. 2013. Tratado de didáctica de la ortografía de la lengua española. Barcelona: Octaedro.
• Carreira, M. 2002. “When Phonological Limitations Compromise Literacy: A Connectionist Approach to Enhancing the Phonological Competence of Heritage Language Speakers of Spanish.” In Literacy and the Second Language Learner, ed. S. Hammandou, 239–260. Greenwich, CT: IAP.
• Clifton, J. 2016. ̈Orthography as Social Practice: Lesson from Papua New Guinea. ̈ Language & Linguistics in Melanesoa. 34 (1).
• Denst-García, E. 2011. “Últimos cambios en las normas académicas de la ortografía y su repercusión en el aula de ELE.” In Competencias y estrategias docentes en el contexto de Asia-Pacífico. Selección de artículos del II CELEAP del Instituto Cervantes de Manila, eds. Arriaga Agrelo et al., 397–414. Manila: Instituto Cervantes
  de Manila.
• Dimángano, P. & Delgrosso, A. 2018. Ortografía y comprensión lectora en la universidad. Buenos Aires: TESEO-UAI.
• Fernández Dobao, A. (2011). “Exploring interaction between heritage and second language learners in the Spanish language classroom: opportunities for collaborative dialogue and learning.” In Languaging in Language Learning and Teaching: A Collection of Empirical Studies, eds. N. Storch & W. Suzuki, 1-23.Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Ford, K., Invernizzi, M., & Huang, F. 2018. The effect of orthographic complexity on Spanish spelling in grades 1–3. Read. Writ. 31, 1063–1081.
• Francés, M. E. & Benítez, R. 2013. Manual de gramática y ortografía para hispanos. Upper Saddle Riverr, New Jersey: Pearson.
• Gabarró, D. and C. Puigarnau. 1996. Nuevas estrategias para la enseñanza de la ortografía en el marco de la programación neurolingüística. Málaga: Aljibe.
• Gómez Camacho, A. 2005. “Enseñar ortografía a universitarios andaluces.” Escuela Abierta, 8: 129–147.
• Gómez-Velázquez, F., A. González Garrido, J. Guárdia-Olmos, M. Peró-Cebollero, and D. Zarabozo-Hurtado. 2014. “Evaluación del conocimiento ortográfico en adultos jóvenes y su relación con la lectura”. Revista Neuropsicología, Neuropsiquiatría y Neurociencias, 14 (1): 44–67.
• González Ríos, Gabriela. 2012. “La Ortografía en el Aula.” Artes y Letras, 36 (2), 181-190.
• Invernizzi, M. & Hayes, L. 2004. “Developmental-spelling research: A systematic imperative.” Reading research quarterly, 39 (2): 216-228. http://library.nmu.edu/services/illdoc.htm.
• Kaufman, A. M. 2005. “Cómo enseñar, corregir y evaluar la ortografía de nuestros alumnos y no morir en el intento.” Lectura y Vida 3 (6): 6–20.
• Kisselev, O., Dubinina, I., & Polinsky, M., 2020. “Form-Focused Instruction in the Heritage Language Classroom: Toward Research-Informed Heritage Language Pedagogy”. Front. Educ. (5):53.
• Klein, I. 1999. “Reflexiones sobre la ortografía.” En Cuestiones a resolver en la enseñanza de la lengua, ed. M. Rojo, 33–40. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Novedades Educativas.
• Kleinpaste, A. 2014. The effects of individualized student-selected spelling lists on elementary students learning and motivation. Master Thesis, Northern Michigan University.
• Linan-Thompson, S., Degollado, E. D., & Ingram, M. D. 2018. Spelling it out, one por uno: patterns of emergent bilinguals in a dual language classroom. TESOL, 9, 330-347.
• Llombar-Huesca, A. 2018. “Understanding the Spelling Errors of Spanish Heritage Language Learners”. Hispania 101 (2): 211-223.
• Llombart-Huesca A and Zyzik E. 2019. “Linguistic Factors and the Spelling Ability of Spanish Heritage Language Learners”. Frontiers in Education, 4, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00150.
• Llombart-Huesca, A. 2017. “Morphological Awareness and Spelling in Spanish Heritage Language Learners.” Linguistics and Education, 37, 11–21.
• Llombart-Huesca, A. 2019. Phonological awareness and spelling of Spanish vowels in Spanish heritage language learners. Hispanic Studies Review, 4, 80–97.
• Londoño Vásquez, D. 2008. “Error Analysis in Written Composition.” Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development 10 (1): 135–146. https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/view/10619.
• Mikulski, A. 2006. “Accentuating Rules and Relationships: Motivation, Attitudes, and Goals in a Spanish for Native Speakers Class.” Foreign Language Annals 39 (4): 660–682.
• Mitchell, R., F. Myles, and E. Marsden. 2013. Second Language Learning Theories [third edition]. London and New York: Routledge.
• Mrak, A. & Padilla, E. 2006. Conozcámonos. Curso práctico de español para el estudiante bilingüe en Estados Unidos. New York: Thomson & Heinle.
• Olivares-Cuhat, G. 2002. “Learning Strategies and Achievement in the Spanish Writing Classroom: A Case Study.” Foreign Language Annals, 35 (5): 561-570.
• Pascual-Gómez, I. & Carril-Martínez, I. 2017. “Relación entre la comprensión lectora, la ortografía y el rendimiento: un estudio en Educación Primaria.” OCNOS 16 (1): 7–17.
• Pérez Marqués, L., Murillo Jorge, G. & Pérez Marqués, C. 1997. “Problemas ortográficos de los estudiantes en primer año de medicina.” Medisan 1(2): 20-26.
• Real Academia Española [RAE]. 2010. Ortografía de la lengua española. Madrid: España.
• Real Academia Española [RAE]. 2014. Diccionario de la lengua española. http://dle.rae.es.
• Salgado, H. 1997. Aprendizaje ortográfico en la didáctica de la escritura. Buenos Aires: Aique.
• Sánchez Jiménez, D. 2009. “Una aproximación a la didáctica de la ortografía en la clase de ELE.” MarcoELE, 9: 1–22.
• Sebba, M. 2007. Spelling and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sebba, M. 2015. “Iconisation, attribution, and branding in orthography.” Written Language / Literacy, 18 (2): 208-227
• Sotomayor, C. 2017. “Desempeño ortográfico de estudiantes chilenos: claves para la enseñanza de la ortografía.” Estudios pedagógicos, 43 (2): 315-332. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07052017000200017.
• Westwood, P. 2018. “Learning to spell: enduring theories, recent research, and current issues.” Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, 23 (2), 137–152.