Transfer of spelling vocabulary.
A. R. Mead · Journal of Educational Psychology · 1917
In 1912-1913, the writer and four advanced students in education at DePauw University made a minor investigation regarding the transfer of spelling vocabulary.The problem specifically stated was, "To what extent do students use the accurate spelling vocabulary of their themes in English in themes in sociology?"Papers containing such themes were collected from the two departments concerned.Thirty students were found in the two courses for whom there were papers in both subjects.These students are indicated by number in the table following.For example, student 4 was represented by a theme in English and one in Sociology, for student 20, there was a theme in each subject, etc., etc.Thus it was possible to compare the work of the same individuals but in different types of themes.For example, it was possible to compare the manuscripts of student 4 in both subjects.It was the original plan to compare such themes as to several different matters such as writing, spelling, punctuation, etc.The comparison as to writing was made, but the resulting data have never been organized.The comparison as to spelling was made.The method used was as follows: The four students of education, hereafter known as Ni., Sand., Ay., and Pr., examined the same manuscripts.But they were not required to examine the whole manuscript, or the same portions of them.Ni. examined 5 pages of the manuscripts in English and sociology for student 7, while Sand., examined 4 pages for each theme for student 7.One examiner studied the same number of pages in the two themes as he examined them, but the pages were not necessarily the same pages examined by the others for the same themes.The numbers of pages actually examined are shown in the columns 2, 5, 8, and 11 of the following table.The English themes had been very carefully marked by the instructor of English and all misspelled words were indicated by red ink.No marks for misspelled words had been placed on the theme papers in sociology.The instructor in English had given even more than the usual stress to the necessity of accuracy in usage of spelling and other matters of elementary composition.The instructor in sociology had given practically no attention to the status of English in such themes, unless he found one in very inferior condition.The results of the (41)