I do not have an answer to your question, but I do know that native speakers also make such errors, that�s something that I noticed recently and I was very surprised. I guess we just have to care our writing as much as we can and read a lot more!!!

 

Take care!!

 

eva

 

 

 

This is a completely non-academic opinion: I believe that students (both native and ESOL/EFL) learn a strategy for spelling a given phoneme or in some cases a syllable. Students use their strategies for spelling words and sometimes they are resistant to new strategies or to exceptions to the rules. In ESOL/EFL students, they learn the strategies for their own language first if the language uses the Latin alphabet, and that causes interference as well. They may adopt a strategy that fits better with their own language, even if that strategy is less common in English.

 

Another factor is that correct spelling simply isn �t very important to many people, especially native speakers. Looking at random blogs or Internet chat rooms will tell you that very quickly.

 

English spelling has got to be some of the worst, if not the absolute worst, in the world. Try to find a copy of Crazy English by Richard Lederer if you can. He has a Ph.D in linguistics, but his books weren �t written for academia but for the general public. Even if you can �t use his books for your paper, you will enjoy them and they may give you ideas.