The reflections in this paper represent part of a study of disadvantaged 13 to 15 year-old children of immigrants in Switzerland. This section deals with the process of learning spelling. In order to observe the students' learning, the same dictation was given four times during the school year. The results were studied intuitively and analytically. Four stages in the learning process were observed: (1) non-comprehension of the meaning with consequent failure to reproduce any part of the text; (2) incomplete auditory perception resulting in many errors; (3) correct perception of a sound by transcription in a code borrowed from the native language; and (4) correlation of progress in spelling and comprehension, but before the stabilization phase, mistakes occurred due to trial and error. The technical analysis of the same data indicated three stages ranging from lack of knowledge and comprehension through phonetic errors to errors in usage and grammar. Implications for foreign language instruction, grading practices, and teaching methodology follow from the conclusion that the process of learning to spell is the same in both the native and foreign language. (AMH)