Hicks, R.B. (PhD)Kedida, Guta2021-10-192023-11-092021-10-192023-11-091989-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/28225Th e main objective of this study is to examine some of the causes and occurrences of the spelli ng errors of the freshmen Ethiollian students and thereby accoun' for these errors. According to Error Analysis (EA) theories and interlanguage (IL) studies, the learners' errors are developmental and systematic by nature. The systematicity in the error data indicates a more or less natural progression (development ) in the learners' acquisiti on of English language showing adherence to "learner- ge nerated' or 'builtin ' syllabus" (see Corder 1981) i.e , the stages of develop ment in learning English. To verify the claims of EA and IL studies with regard t o the occurrences of the learners' spelling .. a total of 140 freshmen Ethiorian students with differing mother-tongue (~T) and backgrounds were given two tests i,e, dict ation and oomposition writing. The same composition t ests were also gi ven to 24 multilingual. grour of ohildren at the English Community School (ECS). The spelling errors obtained from each test written by the Ethiopian group were superficially cl a ssified into categories induced by the err or types. Th ese errors were then furth er classified into the clea rest error patterns that emerged and were given psycholinguist i c exp l an ations .These patterns we r e cross- ch ec ked with the nature o f the s pe llin g e rrors obt a ined from the ECS Vr o up of children. Mor eo ve r , spelling e rror patt erns ~ f th e Ethi op ian g rou p were comp a r ed t o the s t afes in the de ve l opme nt al spelling errors of the native (En g li sh) children th a t Marr,n Wood has e st a ~lish e d . The r es ult of this study, th e r e f ore , revealed that the sp e llin g e rrors of th e fres hmen Ethi opian students could be ac count od f o r by three f actors namely: (a) those errors directly r e l a t ed to Ll interference upo n TL (En glish) (b) those e rrors cf intra lin gual confusions (c) those errors caused by Ll int e rfe r e nc e but a lso r e inforced by intralin ~ ual confusi on . Moreover, the soe llin? Grrors of the fre s hmen group match ed s i ~ nific a ntl y, with th e phonetic a nd transitional stages of deve l opme nt a l spellin ~ e rrors estab li shed by Wood. The majority of the err o r patterns we r e also found out t o be similar to the nature of th e ECS group of children. In additi o n , it was found that stud ents are like l y to make less sp e lling errors in composition th a n in dictation writin~ tests wh en th e e rror perc e nta ge s are computed a~ainst words co rrectly spe lt in these tests.enSpelling Errors of FreshmenEthiopian Students at AUAThesis