Abstract:
This study investigates the causes of grade nine students’ spelling errors at Donbosco High and
Preparatory School in Batu, Ethiopia in 2009/2010. Fifty-two students were included in the study using
simple random sampling techniques, and ten teachers who taught other subjects in English were
selected using availability sampling. The research revealed that the origin of English Language words
is one of the causes for the students’ failure to spell words correctly. That means, since some of
English vocabularies were borrowed from other languages such as Anglo Saxon, Roman, NormanFrench, Latin and Greek, they lack uniform and consistent spelling rules. Besides this, the discrepancy
between the pronunciation and written form of many English words along with less emphasis given to
the spelling lesson contributed a lot to the students’ spelling errors. The study suggested that teachers
should teach and motivate the students to learn the correct spelling. In addition, they should give
reward to students for their correct spelling. Moreover, students should give attention to learn the
correct spelling of English words. It is important to expose students to spelling rules and practice
exercises in their text books to help them learn correct English spellings.
