Teaching Spelling Skills with a Mind -mapping Software

Although the language program at the College of Languages and Translation offers several English language courses in the first four semesters of college, the spelling skill is completely ignored. Since many EFL freshman students are poor spellers, mind-mapping software can be used to help them connect spoken phonemes with their written forms. Mind-mapping software use lines, colors, arrows, branches to show connections between the spelling rule and examples generated on the mind map. This study shows how mind-mapping software can be integrated in EFL courses to help students discriminate different pronunciation of the vowel letters a, i, o, e, u; adding a final silent e; pronunciation of vowel digraphs; consonant letters with more than one sound; different pronunciations of consonant letters c, cc, g, ch, s; double consonants; homophones; homographs; hidden sounds; rules for adding affixes; assimilation; elision; acronyms and abbreviations.

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