Orthographie im Längsschnitt. Zur Rolle schriftstruktureller Komplexität bei Wortschreibungen.

Empirical studies of the past three decades examining children’s written language acquisition suggest that students are sensitive to the acquisition of structural patterns even before the explicit teaching of orthographic phenomena. It can be assumed that structural complexity of the orthographic phenomena could be important for school acquisition processes. In the longitudinal study „Development of (Spelling) Writing from Primary to Secondary School“, the acquisition of orthographic regularities (e. g., <h> spellings, double consonance) was documented for the first time throughout the entire primary school period. In this article, we focus on word spellings, which were assessed using picture-word writing at a total of 10 time points (three assessment points in the 1st and 2nd grades and two assessment points in the 3rd and 4th grades). The subject of the analysis are the language data of children who participated in all 10 time points (n=77). The data analysis aims to answer the question of the order in which orthographic regularities are acquired. In accordance with the above-mentioned assumption, the role of the structural complexity in the acquisition order will also be examined. To this end, the results will first be examined descriptively by calculating means and standard deviations. Subsequently, inferential statistical methods for comparing means (ANOVA and t-test) will be used to test the significance of the acquisition processes. The results show that children acquire the orthographic regularities in the following order: <e> spellings in reduction syllables, syllable-initial <h> in syllabic spellings, morphological spellings in consonantal derivation, <ie> spellings in main syllables, morphological spellings in vocalic derivation, and double consonance in syllabic spellings. Furthermore, double consonance and the syllable-initial <h> are correctly realized first in syllabic and then in morphological spellings. Based on the results, the importance of structural complexity for spelling acquisition, for example with regard to syllabic and morphological spellings, as well as the implications of the results for teaching practice are discussed.