Spelling Adventure Unveiled: Charting the English Language Journey of Grade Three Students in a Bhutanese School

The aim of this study is to investigate the types of spelling errors made by the Grade three students in English in Gedu Higher Secondary School. The study also tells the major sources underpinning such errors in contextual writing composition tasks. The data were collected from written samples of 18 students (male and female) of grade three students of Gedu HSS. The students were given 45 minutes to write on one of five different short essay topics. The spelling errors found in the writing samples were analyzed and classified into four categories of errors based on Cook's classification: omission, substitution, insertion, and transposition. An analysis of errors showed that errors of substitution were the highest proportion of errors. The most common spelling errors of the students were the wrong use of vowels and punctuation. Furthermore, the problem of spelling errors and the causes of these spelling errors results were also discussed.