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Spelling conundrums

By on February 1, 2009

How many people, children or adults, will discard a word when they are unsure of its spelling – in favour of an easier choice?  The English Language is so rich in its vocabulary that it would be virtually criminal to avoid words purely based on which way round their letters go. Would your favourite novel be any less enjoyable if some words were spelt wrong?  Shakespeare himself spelt his own name several different ways.  And yet mention spelling and you will get a reaction from parents, children, teachers, probably everyone, bemoaning badly spelt words or problems with spelling.

 

Of course, the English Language itself doesn’t help. Filled with exceptions and complicated rules, it’s enough to confuse anyone, native speaker or otherwise.  Take the “i before e except after c” rule.  That’s fine for ‘friend’ or ‘receive’ but fails spectacularly with ‘neighbour’ or ‘weird’. Add in homophones such as ‘stationery/stationary’, borrowed words like ‘karaoke’ and ‘cocoa’, the vagaries of American English spellings alongside British English spellings, silent letters such as in ‘debt’ and….well, you get my point.  

 

So from all this, how on earth does anyone ever learn to spell correctly? Reading certainly has no effect. More people than not will be able to read the following: it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. 

 

This is because readers skim words rather than consciously taking note of every letter, whereas spelling is an active and deliberate process. Children often spell by writing the sounds that they ‘hear’ in their heads; learning how sounds relate to words means that they can then understand spelling more clearly. Nowadays learning phonics forms a vital part of literacy teaching.  Knowing the link between graphemes (letters or groups of letters) and phonemes (units of sound), generally means that you then know spelling.  For more difficult words, mnemonics can help (Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Entrances, for example). Other useful techniques can be finding words within word. If spelling is a problem, try out different ways that help you personally: one size doesn’t fit all.

 

For more help on spelling rules, especially for those pesky exceptions, the BBC Skillswise website (www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise) is full of helpful and easy to understand tips, worksheets and games.  If you are brave enough to test yourself, try the interactive Times Spelling Bee (www.timesspellingbee.co.uk). Happy Spelling!

 

Kerry Harper is the head of English at the British School in Tokyo.

 

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