Abstract
This study aims to investigate and categorize spelling errors made by grade nine students at
GuanguaSecondary School in Borena Zone of the Oromia Regional State. To deal with English spelling
errors, English language teachers'‟ semi-structured interviews, L1 word translation, and dictation tasks at
a word and sentence level were administrated to 60 students who were randomly selected using the lottery
method. Content analysis was used to classify spelling errors into different categories: insertion, omission,
substitution, and inversion. The total percentage of the spelling errors in the insertion category was 3.2%
whereas those in the inversion category were quite insignificant(0.3%). The category of omission was the
second most frequent spelling error which accounted for 29.2% of the spelling errors. Substitution spelling
error type had the highest frequency among all other error categories (67.4%). Regarding the spelling errors
that resulted from L1 interference, the findings revealed that students with Afan Oromo L1 often committed
insertion, omission, and substitution errors. Based on the results, it was recommended that students should
be taught correct pronunciation, basic spelling rules, and exceptions to English spelling rules.
Keywords: /Insertion/Inversion/Mother tongue/Omission/Spelling errors/Substitution/