Writing High-Frequency Words at Early Stages of L2 Acquisition: Gender and School Differences

Abstract

Within the field of education, there is controversy as to whether the gender of students and the type of school they attend have an impact on the processes of teaching and learning a second language. The aim of this study is to determine whether these elements might be related to the writing of certain high-frequency words in English, which appear in both the Dolch and Fry lists, in 623 Spanish students aged 8 and 9 years. Based on the SPSS analysis of the errors made by these students, a subsequent and more in-depth study was carried out. For this purpose, the following instruments were used: the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to identify the significant differences; the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare errors according to schooling (single-sex and co-ed schools); and the Mann-Whitney U-test to compare the errors according to students' gender. The results show that the type of school that students attended influenced the spelling of certain high-frequency words more than their gender. To have a stronger basis for conclusions, further collaboration among EFL teachers in all types of school and a systematic follow-up on the writing of high-frequency words over the course of the following school years would be necessary.