Dysorthographia of schoolchildren in the 4th year of elementary school in the interior of the State of Goiás

Abstract

The orthographic appropriation by the learner is a hard task since that involves complex processes in its learning. The present study aims to verify the orthographic performance of 4th-grade students from a public school in a city of the interior of Goiás, Brazil. The sample was composed by 186 school children, age 8-13 years old, from 13 different schools, whose orthographic knowledge was collected by the following instruments: Word Dictation, Pseudowords, and sentences, besides the application of Word and Pseudoword Reading Competence Test. The data were acquired collectively in a classroom by a member of the research team, which was accompanied by the responsible teacher. The data analysis was performed by descriptive analysis, frequency analysis, and Spearman correlation test. In all analysis were adopted significance level of 5% (p≤0,05). The most common dysorthography were “multiple representations” (94.6%), “use of H” (78.5%), “deaf and sonorous exchanges” (75.3%), “am and ão termination” (74.2%), “support in orality” (66.1%) and “Letters omission” (61.3%). It was concluded that the dysorthographias found in the evaluations are compatible with those found in studies from other Brazilian locations, and characterize the writing development according to the literature, even with a large recurrence of errors not expected in the second cycle of elementary school, which may indicate basic aspects commitment in the process of acquisition of written language.