One hundred-forty seventh grade students were pretested using both the Morphographic Spell ing Test and the Stanford Achievement Test. This was fol lowed by a year of instruction in morphographic spelling and posttests at the end of the year. One hundred-nine of the 140 students took a morphographic and standardized retention test at the end of the eighth grade. What was taught in mor phographic spelling was retained. Conventional standardized posttest scores predicted scores on the conventional retention test. No transfer of learning from morphographic training to performance on a conventional standardized test could be demonstrated. Investigation of a year-long instructional program based on Dixon's Corrective Spelling through Morphographs (1979) led to conclusions that the pro gram did teach what it purported to teach and that students made significant gains on a program-fair test of spelling ability. On a standardized test of spelling achievement, negligible gain was measured (Robinson, 1980; Robinson & Hesse, 1981). The significant gains were attributed to: 1) the 20 minutes of instructional time per day for 140 days; 2) 14 morphemic generalizations that were introduced and reinforced systematically and sequentially throughout the programs; and 3) the teachers' adherence to the tightly scripted instructional plan built into the pro gram. The program followed direct instruction tech niques, including a fixed system of record keeping, ver bal commands, visual signals, choral student responses, prescribed correction procedures, and a laconic script for directive statements. The positive effect of this morphemically based, direct instruction program in spelling parallels the suc cess of other carefully designed direct instruction pro grams in reading and math (Becker & Camine, 1980). Research on morphemically based spelling using direct instruction and other program-based, direct instruction, however, have similar shortcomings. Specifically, trans fer of learning to situations outside the design of the program and retention of learning after the instruction has taken place have not been examined. In this study we sought to correct that shortcoming. The applications examined include the use of morphemic principles and techniques of direct instruction. The objective behind Corrective Spelling through Morphographs is to provide a reliable, structural set of principles that allow generalization to a significantly large number of words. Theoretically, once students master this set of principles, the accurate application of them would produce correct spelling for virtually every English word. The program relies for its effectiveness on a smooth sequence of rule introduction delivered by direct instruction techniques. The basic rationale of this delivery system, by which teachers seek to teach more in less time, grew out of Carl Bereiter's studies of individ ual preschool children in which instruction was built on skills students had previously acquired (Becker & Car nine, 1980). The authors of Corrective Spelling through Morphographs designed their program such that a small set of building blocks with a large number of applica tions are taught. The design involves specification of objectives, analysis of objectives into teachable compo nent groups, identification of preskills, selection of ex amples, and sequencing of examples. As a morphemically based, direct instruction pro gram, Corrective Spelling through Morphographs can be contrasted with conventional approaches based on a traditional set of assumptions regarding spelling and in struction. One assumption holds that teaching high Address correspondence to Karl D. Hesse, University of Oregon, College of Education, Room 170, Eugene, OR 97403. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.27 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:50:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms May/June 1983 [Vol. 76 (No. 5)1 277 Utility words produces a workable core curriculum and that grouping these high-utility words around phonetic principles will result in generalizations that transfer to other similar phonetic spelling situations. Another assumption of conventional approaches is that if stu dents learn descriptive generalizations about how the English language works, they will spell accurately. Such generalizations include attention to syllabication and the placement of various letter patterns in words (for ex ample, oi in the middle of words and oy at the end, ex cept in proper names). Traditionally these phonetic principles and descrip tive generalizations have been delivered instructional^ through a modified system of focused practice in which coverage of a list of words has taken precedence over distributed practice and in which retention is monitored over time. In addition, conventional spelling programs provide few, if any, opportunities for student self correction that inherently promote retention and transfer. The intent of this study was to extend knowledge gained in the original investigation of the effectiveness of Corrective Spelling through Morphographs. The ma jor purpose of the study was to investigate the retention of learned spelling by seventh grade subjects who had received instruction in the program. Additionally, this study investigated the subjects' abilities to transfer their learning to a non-program specific situation. more...