Determinants of spelling proficiency in hearing and deaf graduate students: The presentation of medial glottal stop

Accurate spelling is a fundamental skill for effective written communication. It is regarded to be a predominant goal of literacy since spelling errors may significantly change the meaning of the words or sentences. Spelling skill implicates legitimate phonetic, morphemic and orthographic formations that require appropriate awareness levels of the language rules and structure. But if the linguistic rules are complex or irregular and the literacy context is diglossic or even tri- or multi-glossic, the ability to accurately spell words is expected to be limited. This paper accounts for the spelling skill of one certain consonant in one specific position, i.e. the hamzah consonant in its middle position, and presents the challenges that might be encountered by Arabic learners in a high educational level. The current study aimed specifically at providing an insight into the spelling proficiency of two groups of college students in Kuwait, hearing and orally-educated deaf, who are undertaking four-year teaching preparation programs in different educational disciplines. The spelling stimuli was balanced for lexical familiarity and the data analysis accounted for the effect of orthographic, phonological and morphological aspects of the hamzah on the spelling outcome. Results indicated that hearing and deaf college students experienced difficulty in attaining all written forms of middle hamzah, but the most and least common errors showed a general tendency to follow the phonological route of phoneme-graphene conversion when spelling. Unfamiliarity with the governing rules of hamzah was also evident since a higher percentage of errors occurred in spelling low-frequency words despite following the regular spelling rules of hamzah. The irregularity and complex orthographic and morphemic rules of hamzah as well as the variability in the acoustic production of hamzah sounds are discussed in light of the multi-glossic context of Arabic. •The study investigates the spelling of the hamzah consonant in its middle position within words.•Results showed that hearing and deaf students could not attain all written forms of middle hamzah.•Students tend to follow the phonological route of phoneme-graphene conversion when spelling.•The irregularity of the Arabic linguistic rules greatly affects spelling proficiency.•The diglossic or multi-glossic nature of the language limits the ability to accurately spell words.