Why Use a Copy Task to Study Spelling in Handwriting?

The aim of this chapter is to show that even though the copy task is used less frequently than the dictation task, it is just as relevant for understanding how the spelling process works, especially when the real-time approach is adopted. In the case of languages with a deep orthography, such as English or French, which are also morphophonemic orthographies, learning how to spell—defined here as the process involved in retrieving or working out the sequence of graphemes in a word (Steffler, 2001)—is time consuming, frequently difficult, and sometimes problematic for schoolchildren (Graham, Harris, & Chorzempa, 2002; Manesse & Cogis, 2007).