Abstract

Spelling accuracy remains a cornerstone of academic writing, particularly for learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) studying in English-medium instruction (EMI) contexts. In this study we use a learner corpus approach to examine the types and sources of spelling errors in Saudi medical students’ English writing. We extracted 5095 spelling errors from a local learner corpus compiled from students’ written responses collected during two in-class exams written without access to any reference materials. We subsequently classified these errors into 10 distinct categories according to an adapted spelling error taxonomy to which we added a lexical error category. The most frequent errors were omission errors, followed by multiple errors, substitution errors and transposition errors. The analysis shows that most source-classified errors originate from intralingual sources such as overgeneralization and phonetic spelling, whereas interlingual errors were infrequent. These findings highlight recurrent difficulties in the application of English spelling conventions and word-form patterns. The spelling error taxonomy used in this study offers an organized approach for analyzing spelling difficulties in learner writing under exam conditions and can guide the development of more targeted spelling instruction and corrective feedback. These implications are particularly relevant to medical EFL learners studying in an EMI context, where accurate written English is important for academic communication.

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