From Memorising to Visualising: The Effect of Using Visualisation Strategies to Improve Students’ Spelling Skills

Spelling is an essential literacy skill and an important language component that can have a significant effect on L2 students’ future education and occupational status. However, many students struggle to master this skill, and most L2 teachers are limited to traditional approaches when teaching spelling. Therefore, this study aims to investigate both the effect of using visualisation strategies to improve the L2 students’ spelling skills and student’s attitudes towards the use of those strategies. I adopted an experimental approach, whereby the experimental group was trained to use visualisation strategies to study the spelling of new words, while the control group received no special tuition and was required to study the spelling of new words using the methods they normally use. The sample for the study consisted of 42 female sixth graders from Al-Manahej Private Elementary School in Riyadh; they were divided into two groups- 21 students in the experimental group and 21 students in the control group. In order to collect data and achieve the goal of the study, three tools were used- pre-achievement and post-achievement tests to measure the differences between the experimental and control groups’ scores. The students undertook five weekly tests to measure the effectiveness of the visualisation strategies to improve their spelling skills, and a social validity questionnaire to assess their attitudes towards the strategies. The findings were anticipated to promote the use of visualisation strategies in the field of education, to encourage curriculum designers, decision makers, and language teachers to employ them when teaching spelling.