Based on the results obtained in this study, and the discussion, analysis and the findings of the study, I recommend the following:
1. The possible solution to the spelling problems rests on teaching the basic spelling rules, correct pronunciation and reminding the students of the exceptions that every language has. At the same time teachers should take this area seriously. Students should be exposed to authentic materials and a lot of training and practice, because spelling is a skill that is learnt and mastered by much constant repetition (Macline 2001:52).
2. Teachers should be well trained in problem areas of spelling and phonetics and work continuously to improve students spelling by using such books as: (Better English Pronunciation, Tree or Three? And Ship or Sheep?
3. Flash cards, wall- charts, cassettes, CDs and handwriting which has been designed to accompany first year syllabus ( Spine 4 ) should be used extensively.
4. Much concern should be devoted to the teaching of vocabulary, because it represents an essential element in language teaching from early stage of learning process. Teachers and course designers should concentrate on this area with much concern and emphasis.
5. For achieving what has been mentioned, continuous
field training particularly for new teachers should be considered.
6. It is the responsibility of English teachers and syllabus designers to integrate all skills and sub skills to secure the student's writing competence.
I conclude that, the study reveals that the spelling constitute a real problem among students at the University of Dongola. As Macline (2001:310) says: "English spelling is difficult and irregular, but some rules work almost all the time". This is due to the nature of English spelling system. There is no one to one correspondence between sound and letter. Letters do not highly represent the speech sounds, for example, the
letter "a" represents different sounds as illustrate bellow: /ei/ as in cake /keik/, table /teibl/.
/ͻ:/ as in saw /sͻ:/, tall /tͻ:l/.
/e/ as in many /meni/, ate /et/.
/a:/ as in calm /ka:lm/, bar /ba:/.
Another example is that one sound can be represented by more than one letter, the vowel sound /i:/ can be represented by:
(ea) as in tea /ti:/, repeat /ripi:t/.
(ie) as in chief /ʧi:f/, believe /bili:v/.
(ei) as in conceive /kənsi:v/, seize /si:z/.
Also, one can notice that one combination of letters is used to represent different sounds, the combination of letters (ough) represents sounds such as:
/au/ as in bough /bau/, plough /plau/.
/u:/ as in through /Ɵru:/.
/əu/ as in though /Ɵəu/.
The study also indicates that, vowel errors are a major area of difficulties among the students at the University of Dongola.