Analysing orthography in composition and comprehension components of the 2001 Year 4 Maltese annual examination

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the orthographical mistakes made by Year 4 pupils in the Composition and Comprehension components of the Maltese Annual Examination 2001. This research also intends to make the authors and other future researchers aware of the kind of mistakes that pupils attending Primary State Schools make in orthography when completing the Composition and Comprehension tasks. This study should also reveal whether there exists a correlation between the pupils' month of birth and the type and quantity of mistakes, and also if there is gender dominance on these mistakes. The various interviews, which are to be conducted among the teachers of the surveyed sample, should give the study more credibility. The authors hypothesise that girls tend to err less than boys. Moreover, they also contend that those pupils born in the fIrst half of the year have the tendency to make less mistakes than those born in the second six months. The statistical analysis shows that there exists no significant correlation between gender and age factor. However, the s1ight indication that the authors had from the collection of mistakes shows that girls born in the first half ofthe year tend to make more mistakes than: 1. boys, 2. those girls born in the second half ofthe year.