THE INFLUENCE OF STUDY OF A 2ND-LANGUAGE ON IMPROVEMENT IN SPELLING -A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which study of Latin might influence high school students' improvement in spellin g. Skilled and less skilled spellers who chose to study Latin or other second languages in ninth-grade were given a standardized and an expe rimental spelling test, which allowed for a comparison of their spelli ng of words of Latin and Greek origin, both in the fall of their ninth -grade and the spring of their eleventh-grade year. While skilled spel lers generally made greater progress than less skilled spellers, the s tudents of Latin did not outperform students of other second languages either on the standardized spelling test or specifically on words of Latin origin. Analysis of errors on the experimental test indicated th at certain words of Latin origin were misspelled as frequently by elev enth as by ninth graders; these may have affected the lower rate of im provement on words of Latin origin, in contrast to the words of Greek origin. The results suggest particular ways in which the relationship of spelling proficiency and study of language might be investigated fu rther.