Time of Memorization and English Spelling Difficulties among Iranian EFL Students in Malaysia

In this study, phonological, morphological, and orthographical spelling difficulties were identified to examine the correlation between spelling difficulties and the time taken to memorize the spelling of words (time of memorization) among Iranian EFL students in Malaysia. The participants were 41 Iranian EFL students (20 male and 21 female) who were selected purposefully from an Iranian secondary school in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. A pre-test and post-test design adapting Tabrizi at el.’s (2013) approach was used. Forty words from the second-year English textbook of Iranian EFL students were selected for use in both pre-test and post-test. After the identification of the most frequent type of spelling errors, a significant negative correlation was found between time of memorization and English spelling errors (r= - 0.765), indicating that when the time of response was short, English spelling errors increased. The findings may contribute to identification, classification, and treatment of spelling, and reducing spelling difficulties among EFL learners to mitigate spelling difficulties among young learners, particularly among Iranian EFL students.