SHEILA KING spoke of SPELLING "RESEARCH" to DAN TRIPLETT on 10-26-96
SK>-> I don't want to dissect this study....the goal was to document
SK>-> "spelling knowledge."  Of special interest was to determine if
SK>-> invented spelling was predictive of word recognition.  It was a
SK>-> strong predictor.
SK> 
SK>Be careful. From what you posted of the study, I didn't see how they
SK>determined that their was any cause-effect relationship established.
SK> 
SK>Certainly they observed a high correlation between students who used
SK>invented spelling and then later had good word recognition. But how
SK>can it be ascertained from a purely observational study whether
SK>students, in the absence of a traditional spelling program, and who
SK>therefore resort to their only alternative, invented spelling,
SK>wouldn't have had good word recognition anyhow? Perhaps what is
SK>really happening here is that students with a propensity for good
SK>word recognition resort to invented spelling in the absence of any
SK>other spelling program. From an observational case study you have NO
SK>WAY of determining the cause and effect relationship here, which has
SK>been a point that Ron McDermott tried to make to you unsuccessfully
SK>some time back. All you can glean from an observational study is that
SK>there is a high correlation between the two, and that it bears
SK>further investigation in a more highly structured and controlled
SK>experiment. If you believe that what you posted here indicates that
SK>invented spelling PREDICTS word recognition, then you mislead
SK>yourself.  
SK>Sheila King
Point well taken and I can offer no arguments.  I do not believe what I 
have posted here indicates that invented spelling PREDICTS word 
recognition.  The study did find that it can be equally predictive with 
conventional spelling.  I don't know that we can draw any real 
conclusions from this.  This is but one study and I offered it mainly 
because I found the information and thought it was interesting.  I don't 
think I offered any personal conclusions.  
If I did, please ignore them....
Dan
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