Investigating Sepedi Spelling Errors Performed By Second Year Student Educators In The University Of Limpopo

Abstract

Language is an essential skill that has to be known and mastered by everyone including the student educators, for the purpose of good communication in the written form of the language and to be able to impart the knowledge to their learners when they will be teaching in schools. During the Sepedi essay writing activities in the university, most student educators committed spelling errors at a rate that was not acceptable since they are the prospective educators that are expected to promote their native language as one of their major subjects. Spelling errors in language writing can change the meaning of a word or make the readers not to understand the message imparted to them. Therefore, this study focused on the spelling error analysis to evaluate student‘s errors in written Sepedi words in order to identify the types of spelling errors and their causes.

The research methodology of this research was descriptive qualitative. The study followed the Cognitive Constructivism Theory by Jean Piaget (1965), and Noam Chomsky’s theory on Transformative Generative Grammar of (1960). The population of this research was 156 Second Year students for the academic year 2022. The purposive sampling technique was used to sample 20 students as the participants of the research. Data was collected through documentation in a form of students’ written essays. Data was analysed following inductive thematic data analysis method. The eleven (11) categories of Sepedi spelling errors were examined and analysed as the content of this study, in line with Cook (1999). The study will contribute positively to improving student educators’ writing skills in language usage, in order for them to be able to impart that knowledge to the learners and equip them with appropriate essay writing skills for Sepedi Language.