Academic literature on the topic 'Spelling ability'

Textism, or SMS language, is the abbreviated and informal language often used on digital communication platforms. While textism had gained popularity and efficiency in modern communication, its impact on language skills, particularly spelling abilities among students, had become a subject of interest for researchers. This study explored the relationship between textism and the spelling ability of Junior High School students during the School Year 2022-2023. The study used a descriptive-correlational research design involving 238 students selected through a stratified random sampling method. The data was collected using a Modified-Textism Questionnaire and a Researcher-made Spelling Ability Test. Mean, Standard Deviation, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were the statistical tools used in the study. Results showed high textism usage regarding shortenings, contractions, clippings, acronyms and initialisms, letter and number homophones, non-conventional spellings, and onomatopoeic spellings. The students’ spelling ability was good, reflecting their mastery of word formation rules and conventions. The study found a significant relationship between contractions, homophones, clippings, and spelling ability, but no correlation was observed for shortenings, acronyms, non-conventional spellings, and onomatopoeic spellings. The study further revealed that heavy reliance on textisms could decrease spelling ability over time. Future studies may investigate additional linguistic aspects of textism, such as syntactic structures or grammar usage, to comprehensively understand its impact on students’ spelling ability.

Purpose Morphology, which is a bridge between phonology and orthography, plays an important role in the development of word-specific spellings. This study, which employed longitudinal sampling of typically developing students in Grades 3, 4, and 5, explored how the misspellings of words with derivational suffixes shed light on the interplay of phonological, orthographic, and morphological (POM) linguistic features as students learn to integrate POM features appropriately to generate correct spellings. Method Sixty typically developing Grade 3 students were tested using the Spelling subtest from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Second Edition (Wechsler, 2001) and were divided into superior, average, and poor spellers. Students' spelling skill was then assessed using the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–Second Edition annually for another 2 years. Misspelled derivations from these three testing sessions were analyzed for linguistic feature errors and error complexity/severity. Differences in the integration of POM features across spelling ability levels at Grades 3–5 were analyzed with Kruskal–Wallis analyses of variance. Results Longitudinal results demonstrated POM integration for the development of word-specific spellings involving derivational morphology was in its initial stages over Grades 3–5 and was influenced by spelling ability level. Information from a qualitative analysis revealed considerable variability in how students applied their POM knowledge to spell complex derivations. Conclusions Word-specific spellings draw on multiple linguistic codes—P, O, and M—and their interconnections. It involves more than an understanding of orthographic rules. Rather, accurate spelling develops through an increased understanding of the phoneme–grapheme relationships as facilitated by the identification of word parts (base + or − affixes) in written language. Educational and clinical implications are discussed.

For adults, written spelling is generally superior to oral spelling. To determine whether the same holds true for children in kindergarten through second grade, we compared children's ability to spell real words (Experiment 1) and nonsense words (Experiment 2) orally and in writing. Building on the work of Tangel and Blachman (1992, 1995) and others, we developed a reliable system to assess the overall quality of the children's spellings. We also examined the phonological and orthographic legality of the spellings. By first and second grade, written spellings were superior to oral spellings in both overall quality and representation of phonological form. This held true for both words and nonwords. The results suggest that children, like adults, more accurately analyze the linguistic structure of a spoken item when they can represent the results in a lasting, visible form than when they cannot.

Purpose Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual's linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults' spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle. Thus, we aimed to examine the concurrent validity of four different scoring methods for measuring adults' spellings (a dichotomous scoring method and three continuous methods) and to determine whether adults' linguistic awareness skills differentially predict spelling outcomes based on the scoring method employed. Method Sixty undergraduate college students who were determined to be average readers as measured by a word reading and contextual word reading task were administered a spelling task as well as morphological, orthographic, phonemic, and syntactic awareness tasks. Results All four scoring methods were highly correlated suggesting high concurrent validity among the measures. Two linguistic awareness skills, morphological awareness and syntactic awareness, predicted spelling performance on both the dichotomous and continuous scoring methods. Contrastively, phonemic awareness and orthographic awareness predicted spelling performance only when spelling was scored using a continuous measure error analysis. Conclusions The results of this study confirm that multiple linguistic awareness skills are important for spelling in adults who are average readers. The results also highlight the need for using continuous measures of spelling when planning intervention or instruction, particularly in the areas of orthographic and phonemic awareness.

While previous research indicates a relationship between ability to spell and proofreading, two variables, knowledge of word spellings and presentation time, have consistently not been controlled. In this study, a very easy passage (allowing control of word knowledge) was presented in short segments on a computer screen (controlling presentation time). Ten pairs of 9th- and 10th-grade students, matched for IQ and sex but differing in spelling ability, were asked to identify whether each segment contained a spelling error (half of the segments contained a misspelled word). An analysis of variance yielded significant main effects for both spelling ability and correctly spelled versus misspelled segments and a significant interaction between these: good and poor spellers performed equally well on correctly spelled segments, but good spellers were superior to poor spellers in identifying misspelled segments. The results are interpreted as supporting Frith's (1980) “partial cues” hypothesis regarding different reading styles in good and poor spellers.

AbstractIn order to assess the effects of individually selected learning programmes groups of year 2 and 3 mainstream school children used individualised techniques for learning new spellings. Techniques ranged from phonic to visualisation to multi-sensory methods. Each child was directed to use a particular technique based on the findings of a trial phase in which several different methods were used with each child when learning sets of word spellings. The method that produced the fastest rate of learning for the individual child was chosen from this trial phase. The child was encouraged to use this method whenever new spellings had to be learned. No further alterations or additions were made to the school curriculum. The effectiveness of the individualised methods was assessed by comparing the children’s improvements in spelling ability with matched control children in schools where the normal curriculum was followed, together with extra sessions involving free writing/drawing tasks. The findings indicated that both year 2 and 3 children given the individualised method showed significantly larger increases in spelling ability over the school year. These results suggest that individualising learning may be a valuable tool in the effective teaching of literacy and can be used to produce significant advances in learning about spelling.

The effect on spelling ability of exposure to print This study explores the contribution of print exposure to spelling achievement. The hypothesis that exposure to print accounts for individual differences in spelling ability was tested on 129 Year 7 female students from a predominantly non-English-speaking background. A multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the relationship between spelling and the predictor variables - exposure to print (TRT), phonological processing, comprehension level and general ability. The results indicated that phonological processing ability accounted for individual differences in spelling performance regardless of general ability. However, this specific student cohort appear to reflect stages in spelling development associated with word knowledge and reading experience. The analysis also indicated that other factors not addressed in this study are implicated.

This study examined whether conscious use of phonological knowledge is associated with invented spelling and whether a relation exists between invented spelling and reading. Thirty-two 4-year-olds with scores of 116 or higher on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test were classified as Non-spellers and Inventive Spellers based on their spellings of 10 words on the Invented Spelling Test. All subjects were administered 11 different tasks which examined alphabet knowledge, word segmentation, sound/letter association, and reading knowledge. Results indicated that all subjects displayed a similar ability when required to recite the alphabet, recognize uppercase letter names, segment words into syllables, and identify basic concepts about print. Inventive Spellers demonstrated superiority at letter/sound identification and segmentation of words by phonemes. Although significant differences were observed between Non-spellers and Inventive Spellers on wordknowledge tasks, dramatic differences among Inventive Spellers were evident. Forty-four percent of the Inventive Spellers were found to be Proficient Word Readers whereas the remaining 56% displayed reading proficiency at a similar level as the Non-spellers. A relation was found between spelling ability and conscious use of phonological knowledge; however, word reading appeared to be a related (but separate) ability from word writing.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between metaphonological awareness and spelling ability. Twenty-five children in Kindergarten and Grades One and Two were asked to participate in two tasks of metaphonological awareness, one involving phoneme segmentation (Yopp,1988) and the other phoneme deletion (Rosner,1975). Children were also asked to provide self-generated spelling samples. Spelling samples were then analyzed according to a spelling assessment scheme developed for this study and based on the developmental spelling stages outlined by Beers and Beers (1981) and Gentry (1982). The major finding from this study is that some aspects of metaphonological ability are reliably and moderately related to spelling development. Other findings regard the characteristics of children's spelling errors observed in the course of developing the spelling assessment scheme.
Medicine, Faculty of
Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of
Graduate

The problem of this study was an analysis of major spelling deficiencies among collegiate business students. The purposes were as follows: (1) to develop a diagnostic instrument that will measure spelling deficiencies; and (2) to make recommendations regarding the preparation of materials that will assist students in overcoming these deficiencies. Written assignments prepared by collegiate Business Communication students were examined for spelling errors. Errors were then classified into the following categories: (1) words with "ie" and "ei" ; (2) final "e"; (3) final consonant rule; (4) final "y"; (5) confusion over vowel sounds; (6) pronunciation problems; (7) sound-alikes; (8) plurals; (9) apostrophes; (10) omissions; (11) additions and repetitions; (12) substitutions; (13) demons; and (14) miscellaneous. Percentages of total errors served as a guideline for preparation of a Table of Specifications, and a Spelling Diagnostic Test was developed. Validity of the instrument was determined by a panel of experts. The test was then administered to 214 collegiate business students, and a reliability coefficient of .83 was determined using the split-half method.

Thesis (M.S.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2000.
Thesis advisor: Margaret Ferrara. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Teacher Education." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-47).

Spelling is a linguistic process that integrates phonological, orthographic, and morphological knowledge into novel word forms. Regardless of language, students learn to identify meaningful sound/letter combinations as they learn how to spell. However, most spelling investigations only consider overall word accuracy and not the nature and number of linguistic features in error. This chapter illustrates the utility of a linguistic scoring procedure in documenting the nature of misspelling patterns longitudinally in two groups of students from grades 1–7 that varied by spelling ability. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of misspellings demonstrate how general word knowledge develops into specific word knowledge for spelling. This type of fine-grained linguistic analysis is useful in studying spelling skill in any alphabetic or alphasyllabary language.

There are three kinds of difficulty that may cause a child’s written work to be incomprehensible. First, specific spelling difficulty, where some words may be so badly spelt that they are difficult to recognize. Secondly, specific writing difficulty, where the handwriting may be so untidy that it is illegible see Figure 7.3, p. 65). And, thirdly, language disorder, where the language used by the child may be so full of errors that it does not make sense. Specific spelling difficulty will be described in this chapter, specific writing difficulty in the next chapter, and language disorders will be described in Chapter 9. . . . What is specific spelling difficulty? . . . specific spelling difficulty can be defined as an unexplained, significant spelling difficulty. A significant difficulty is usually defined as a spelling age more than two standard deviations below the mean for the child’s age (see Chapter 1, p. 5 for the explanation of this term). Specific spelling difficulty is often associated with specific reading difficulty. In some children, specific spelling difficulty is an isolated problem. Although such children will have average reading ability, research studies suggest that subtle reading problems can be detected in such children on special testing. . . . How spelling is assessed . . . There are several standardized spelling tests in general use. These differ in the ways in which they test spelling. Some present the child with words that are part of his sight vocabulary, others present a wider range of words. Tests usually involve spelling from dictation. Some may also involve recognizing whether a printed word is correctly spelt or not. The psychologist will choose the test, or tests, that will provide information about the child’s spelling level, as well as about the nature of his difficulties. For example, a test that shows that a child has difficulties with spelling from dictation, but not with identifying words that are incorrectly spelt, may demonstrate particular problems with word memory. The psychologist will also try to differentiate between the different kinds of spelling errors, such as phonetic, visual, and sequential errors, which are described later in this chapter.

To be literate, people must be able to read and to write. There has been a large amount of research on the first aspect of literacy, reading. We now know a good deal about how adults read and about how children learn to read. We know much less about the second aspect of literacy, writing. One aspect of learning how to write is learning how to spell. How do children manage this, especially in a language like English that has so many irregular spellings? That is the topic of this book. In this book, I present a detailed study of the spellings produced by a group of American first-grade children. I ask what the children’s spellings reveal about their knowledge of language and about the development of spelling ability. In these days of computerized spelling checkers, is learning to spell correctly still necessary for being a good writer? I believe that it is. In her review of research on beginning reading, Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 3) states that “the ability to read words, quickly, accurately, and effortlessly, is critical to skillful reading comprehension— in the obvious ways and in a number of more subtle ones.” Similarly, the ability to spell words easily and accurately is an important pan of being a good writer. A person who must stop and puzzle over the spelling of each word, even if that person is aided by a computerized spelling checker, has little attention left to devote to other aspects of writing. Just as learning to read words is an important part of reading comprehension, so learning to spell words is an important part of writing. In the study reported in this book, I focus on a group of American first-grade children who were learning to read and write in English. These children, like an increasing number of children in America today, were encouraged to write on their own from the very beginning of the first-grade year. Their teacher did not stress correct spelling. Indeed, she did not tell the children how to spell a word even if they asked.

The purpose of this study is to propose a model for designing reading education that can improve reading ability by identifying and linguistically analyzing how the reading ability required for reading-comprehension is presented at each learner level. In this study, the eye-tracking experiment was conducted with divided into lexical and sentence levels which are the stage of comprehension corresponding to the subelement of the reading-comprehension, and the results are as follows. First, at the lexical level, it was confirmed that cognitive speed differs depending on the degree of preservation of the base form of the conjugations of the predicates with the same base form. Second, at the sentence level, we confirmed that the unstable reading-comprehension process appeared in the complex compared to the short sentence, even if the sentence length, vocabulary level, and vocabulary were similar and in the case of that the sentence has the same meaning. This paper suggests that the spelling, vocabulary, conjugation, grammar knowledge that correspond to the lower level should be included as the elements of education.

The authors of the article focus on the difficulties experienced by younger students in mastering the spelling norms of the Russian language. This is the inability to immediately distinguish in the consciousness of the signified and signifying, the inability to correctly determine the word stress and a number of others. The teacher should know the methods of formation of students ' concept of "phoneme" and the ability to recognize other phonetic units of the language. It is emphasized that the phonetic work should precede the graphic one, based on the development of the speech-motor apparatus. The authors present a description of some methods of formation of the phonetic competence, such as: exercises on the distinction between words as lexical units and as a "phonetic word", the correct syllabification, accent, modelling, awareness similarsocial functions.

The schooling system plays a significant role in teaching basic literacy skills such as reading and writing, yet students from al schooling backgrounds find it challenging to uphold an acceptable standard of academic writing in higher education in comparison with their advantaged peers. The fact that universities have adopted English as the medium for teaching and learning purposes makes it difficult for students to demonstrate the ability to write in their own words, as they are second or third language speakers. Student success at institutions of higher learning depends largely on the adequate mastery of reading and writing skills required by the discipline. The article assesses the academic writing skills of final year education students completing their studies at a University of Technology in South Africa. Thisstudy was necessitated by the realisation that students at both undergraduate and post-graduate level are struggling to express themselves through writing in the academic language which is critical for them to succeed at university. The article draws on a writing process skills questionnaire administered to fourth year students and English lecturers in the Department of Education and Communication Sciences. General academic writing conventions such as organisation, development, building an argument, grammar, and spelling were examined through an academic essay. The results highlight the poor writing skills and lack of mastering of academic writing skills of students.

The benefits of rubrics as teaching learning tools have been identified specifically for performance-based assessment in language. In Indonesia, the ability to produce quality written work has become a necessity to complete higher education but it remained unclear how learning and assessment on this area were conducted. This paper focused on exploring the use of rubrics by four non-native teachers’ working for a private ESL school in Indonesia for assessing students’ writing tasks. The study investigated how the teachers’ current practice and how they approached rubrics for assessing writing by means of both closed and open-ended surveys. Additionally, an analysis of the assessed essay against the rubrics was conducted to identify interrater reliability. The results showed that the teachers had positive attitude towards rubrics, used rubrics regularly and approached rubrics in a similar fashion which was to use them as an assessment tool but not learning tool. There was an identified interrater inconsistency in the scoring results. Additionally, the teachers put a lot more focus on Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation category than on the other two categories (Function & Content, and Cohesion & Coherence). The implication of the study calls for more effective use of rubrics as teaching and learning tools by the teachers as well as the provision of teacher training which enable the teachers to do so and consequently resulting in improvement of interrater reliability. Keywords: rubrics, interpretation of rubrics, non-native teachers, English writing, writing assessment

From my own experience as a Student Nurse Educator and my role as an Academic Liaison Nurse (ALN) in a Dedicated Education Unit (DEU), clinical practicums can be challenging for our nursing students. Responses in practicum can vary from exciting to downright scary, but for those with additional challenges such as dyslexia, getting words mixed up or incorrect spelling can have a devastating effect on their confidence and their ability to fulfil their role. This paper draws on a study completed for my Master of Applied Professional Practice about the stigma of dyslexia and the impact on nursing students. Using a framework of qualitative phenomenology, I conducted face-to-face interviews with five participants, and then employed narrative analysis to better understand their journeys. I was privileged to hear their personal stories as current nursing students and graduates talked about how they managed barriers, including fatigue, and expectations while completing their practicums. This paper shares some of the coping strategies participants offered, as well as my own reflections of how teaching and clinical staff can help. Educators and clinical leads alike need to be knowledgeable and skilled, and understanding of those with different learning styles and preferences. Consistent support and, often, repetition, are the keys to learning, and reducing stress and fatigue for those with dyslexia. In our sector, multiple programmes have work experience, placements or internships, and many of the issues and responses discussed will be transferable beyond the Bachelor of Nursing degree. I hope that sharing some of the participants’ stories and my own observations may encourage others to consider how they support learners with dyslexia and discover new ideas that work.

The completion of study at the university is marked by passing the state exam, which needs to be defended as part of the final thesis. The state exam verifies the knowledge and skills that the student acquired during their studies and assesses their ability to use these skills in resolving the challenges presented by their field of study. The choice of thesis and their registration to the Academic Information System is ordinarily scheduled for the beginning of the third semester of study. This presents the key questions: Is the student mature enough at the time to be able to choose the right topic? Is he capable of evaluating/assessing the professional topics, which he has not fully studied yet? What was his decision based on? What was he influenced by? Aside from these questions the key objective of this research has been to collate the views and attitudes of students prior to and post completion of their final thesis. In most cases, it is fair to say that the final thesis becomes the students' first professional publication. The student should go through the phase of research, selection and filtering of information and should - during the writing phase - understand the logical grouping and sequence of technical text. In practise, however, the majority of students find the writing part of the process extremely difficult. Adhering to the technical terminology, a typographical and spelling rule presents a similar issue. Still a greater problem is the actual speech - a communication style used to defend the final paper - where only a small percentage of students manage to meet the required level. To improve both the quality of final thesis as well as the quality of communication style was the key reason for an inclusion of the Seminar subject to the final thesis 1, 2, 3. The course is taught through presentations and is supported by e-learning, namely LMS Moodle. Within that environment, questionnaires were created and shared with the 2nd and 3rd year students of Bachelor studies at the Department of Computer Science. The paper presents the results obtained from two surveys in the academic year 2013/14, 2014/15. The first survey was conducted in the fourth semester, once the final paper topics were assigned and the questionnaire included topics such as the method used for identifying and forecasting around the successful processing of selected thesis, assessments of time used to complete the work, etc. The second survey was conducted in the sixth semester - using the same group of students - bollowing the final thesis submission deadline. The questionnaire titled 'Now I can say that ...' was designed to either confirm or contradict their original statements related to the challenges they had to overcome, further on the possibility of accepting the offer of having the work completed by a third party (by another person or company), etc. The survey presented interesting findings that are further discussed in this paper.

The War in the Pacific National Historical Park (WAPA), a protected area managed by the National Park Service (NPS), was established "to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of those participating in the campaigns of the Pacific Theater of World War II and to conserve and interpret outstanding natural, scenic, and historic values on the island of Guam." Coral reef systems present in the park represent a vital element of Guam?s cultural, traditional, and economical heritage, and as such, are precious and in need of conservation. To facilitate the management of these resources, NPS determined that a scleractinian (stony coral) species survey was necessary to establish a baseline for existing coral communities and other important factors for conservation. EnviroScience, Inc. performed a survey of stony coral species, coral habitat, and current evidence of stressors at WAPA?s H?gat and Asan Units in 2022. This report summarizes these findings from a management perspective and compares its findings to previous survey data from 1977 and 1999 (Eldridge et al. 1977; Amesbury et al. 1999). WAPA is located on the tropical island of Guam, located on the west-central coast of the island, and encompasses 2,037 acres. Underwater resources are a significant component of the park, as 1,002 acres consists of water acres. The park is comprised of seven units, of which two of these, the H?gat and Asan Beach Units, include all the oceanic water acres for the park. The H?gat Beach Unit (local spelling, formerly known as ?Agat?) is located at the south-west portion of the park and consists of 38 land acres and 557 water acres (NPS 2003). The Asan Beach Unit consists of 109 acres of land and 445 water acres (NPS 2003). A current baseline for existing coral communities and other important factors for conservation necessitates the need for up-to-date data on the location, presence, relative abundance, and present health of corals. Park managers need this updated data to determine where and how to best focus conservation priorities and identify restoration opportunities. Management actions in park reef areas informed by this inventory included identifying locations where there were: high rates of sedimentation; high coral biomass; rare or threatened species, with a priority given to species endemic to Guam and listed as ?threatened? under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA; Acropora globiceps, A. retusa, A. speciosa, and Seriatopora aculeata); coral persistence and decline, disease and/or nuisance species, including the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster cf. solaris, ?COTS?) and the sponge Terpios hoshinota; and bleached areas. All work carried out was in accordance with the NPS statement of work (SOW) requirements, which involved a quantitative inventory using both new and pre-existing transects. The resulting transects totaled 61 (including the four from the 1999 study), each measuring 50 meters in length and distributed across depths of up to 50 feet. Divers took photo-quadrat samples covering an area of approximately 9 m?, encompassing 50 photo-quadrats of dimensions 0.50 m x 0.36 m (n=50). The collective area surveyed across all 61 transects amounted to ~549 m?. Additionally, a qualitative search was conducted to enhance documentation of coral species that have limited distribution and might not be captured by transects, along with identifying harmful species and stressors. Timed roving diver coral diversity surveys were carried out at a total of 20 sites occurring within the waters of WAPA, including eight sites at the H?gat unit and 12 sites at the Asan unit. The findings from this report reveal significant disparities in benthic cover compositions between H?gat and Asan units. The H?gat unit exhibits high abundances of turf algae and unconsolidated sediment while the Asan beach unit presents a different scenario, with hard coral as the dominant benthic cover, followed closely by crustose coralline algae (CCA). The Asan unit is also more difficult to access from shore or boat relative to H?gat which provides that unit some protection from human influences. The Asan beach unit's prevalence of hard coral, CCA, and colonizable substrate suggests a more favorable environment for reef growth and the potential benefits of maintaining robust coral cover in the area. These distinct differences in benthic communities highlight the contrasting ecological dynamics and habitats of the two study areas. Across both H?gat and Asan beach unit transects, a total of 56 hard coral species were recorded from 27 genera, with 44 species recorded from the H?gat unit and 48 species recorded from the Asan unit. Of the four historical transects surveyed in the Asan unit from 1999, three experienced declines in percent coral cover (17.38-78.72%), while the fourth had an increase (10.98%). During the timed roving diver coral diversity surveys, a total of 245 hard coral species, including 241 scleractinian coral species representing 49 genera and 4 non-scleractinian coral species representing 4 genera were recorded. Uncertainties related to coral identification, unresolved boundaries between morphospecies, differences in taxonomists' perspectives, and the rapidly evolving state of coral taxonomy have significant implications for species determinations during coral diversity surveys. While the recent surveys have provided valuable insights into coral diversity in WAPA waters, ongoing taxonomic research and collaboration among experts will be essential to obtain a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of coral biodiversity in the region. Of the several ESA coral species that were searched for among the H?gat and Asan beach units, Acropora retusa was the only coral species found among quantitative transects (n=2) and A. globiceps was observed during coral diversity surveys. Acropora speciosa, which was dominant in the upper seaward slopes in 1977, is now conspicuously absent from all the surveys conducted in 2022 (Eldredge et al., 1977). The disappearance and reduction of these once-dominant species underscores the urgency of implementing conservation measures to safeguard the delicate balance of Guam's coral reefs and preserve the diversity and ecological integrity of these invaluable marine ecosystems. Other formerly common or locally abundant species were infrequently encountered during the diversity surveys, including Acropora monticulosa, A. sp. ?obtusicaulis?, A. palmerae, Stylophora sp. ?mordax?, Montipora sp. ?pagoensis?, and Millepora dichotoma. Significant bleaching-associated mortality was recorded for these species, most of which are restricted to reef front/margin zones exposed to moderate-to-high levels of wave energy. Sedimentation was present in both H?gat and the Asan units, though it was more commonly encountered in H?gat transects. While significant portions of the reef area within the WAPA H?gat unit are in poor condition due to a variety of stressors, some areas still hosted notable coral communities, which should be a potential focus for park management to prevent further degradation. There is a need for more effective management of point source pollution concerns, particularly when subpar wastewater treatment or runoff from areas with potential pollution or sediment-laden water is flowing from nearby terrestrial environments. Future monitoring efforts should aim to establish a framework that facilitates a deeper understanding of potential point source pollution incidents. This would empower park managers to collaborate with adjacent communities, both within and outside of park boundaries, to mitigate the localized impacts of pollution (McCutcheon and McKenna, 2021). COTS were encountered during transect surveys as well as in coral diversity surveys. including along the upper reef front/reef margin at site Agat-CS-2. The frequency of these observations, particularly in the WAPA H?gat unit and where stress-susceptible corals are already uncommonly encountered, raise concern about the ability of the populations of these coral species to recover following acute disturbance events, and calls in to question the ability of some of these species to persist in WAPA waters, and in Guam?s waters more broadly. More frequent crown-of-thorns control efforts, even if only a handful of sea stars are removed during a single effort, may be required to prevent further loss to vulnerable species. There were several documented incidents of Terpios hoshinota covering large sections of branching coral in the reef flat along transects, but it is still unclear how detrimental this sponge is to the overall reef system. There is a concern that elevated levels of organic matter and nutrients in the water, such as those resulting from sewage discharge or stormwater runoff, could lead to increased Terpios populations (De Voogd et al. 2013). Consequently, it is important to track populations in known areas of sedimentation and poor water quality. The presence of unique species at single survey sites within the study areas underscores the ecological importance of certain locations. Some species are known to occur in other locations in Guam, while a few may be limited to specific sites within WAPA waters. These differences are likely influenced by environmental and biological factors such as poor water quality, severe heat stress events, chronic predation by crown-of-thorns sea stars, disease, and reduced herbivore populations. These factors collectively shape the condition of the benthic community, leading to variations in species distribution and abundance across the study sites. Documenting coral stress and identifying potentially harmful species allows for proactive management strategies to prevent the establishment of nuisance or detrimental species while populations are still manageable. Updated data on the location, presence, relative abundance, and health of corals is essential for park managers to prioritize conservation efforts and identify restoration opportunities effectively. Observations from this report raise concerns about the health and resilience of coral ecosystems in the H?gat unit and emphasize the need for knowledge of local factors that shape benthic community structure. Understanding the drivers responsible for these variations is crucial for effective conservation and management strategies to preserve the ecological balance and overall health of coral reefs in both units. Continued monitoring efforts will be critical in assessing long-term trends and changes in benthic cover and enabling adaptive management approaches to safeguard these valuable marine ecosystems in the face of ongoing environmental challenges.