Comparison of students from private and public schools on the spelling performance.

OBJECTIVE To compare the spelling ability of schoolchildren from the fourth to sixth grades of the elementary schools in the private and public schools of Bauru, São Paulo, and to verify whether errors are overcome as studies progress and the hierarchy of errors as to how often they occur. METHODS A dictation was applied to 384 schoolchildren: 206 from the private schools: 74 were at the fourth grade, 65 at the fifth grade, and 67 at the sixth grade; and 178 from the public schools; 56 at the fourth grade, 63 at the fifth grade, and 59 at the sixth grade of elementary school. Student's t test was used. RESULTS In comparison of total spelling errors score, difference was found among the fourth and sixth grades of the private and public schools. Spelling errors decreased as education progressed, and those related to language irregularities were more common. CONCLUSION Spelling ability and performance of students from the private and public schools are not similar in the fourth and sixth grades, but it is in the fifth grade. Spelling errors are gradually overcome as education progresses; however, this overcome rate was considerable between the fourth and fifth grades in the public schools. Decrease in the types of spelling errors follows a hierarchy of categories: phoneme/grapheme conversion, simple contextual rules, complex contextual rules, and language irregularities. Finally, the most common type of spelling error found was that related to language irregularities.