How We Learn to Spell
Mario Pei in The Story of English said “the English spelling system is the world’s most awesome mess.” If you have ever had any difficulty with spelling, you will likely agree with him. But the fact that the system is a mess does not excuse us from learning to spell. In our society our level of intelligence, our academic potential, even our ability to succeed in a job are often judged by our ability or lack of ability to spell. So if we have problems with spelling, it is to our advantage to learn to spell as well as we can.
The history of the English language explains why our spelling system is a “mess.” English has its roots in the Anglo-Saxon language, a Germanic language. Because of invasion, this original language was influenced by the Scandinavian and French languages. As English speakers moved all over the world, they borrowed words from all the language groups they encountered. Our penchant for borrowing and creating new words out of parts of old words has given us a rich language but one in which spelling is not uniform and therefore not easy.
How We Learn to Spell
There are two main routes to learning to spell: the visual and the auditory.
- Visual spellers know how to spell because the spelling of the word looks right to them. These people have learned to spell from seeing the words on the printed page while they are reading. If asked to spell an unfamiliar word, they will usually have to write the word out to be sure of the spelling. They often can spell words they cannot pronounce.
- Auditory spellers know how to spell because they can relate the sound of the word to the letters that represent that sound. They are often auditory learners who learn best by hearing. These are also people for whom phonics instruction worked. They can often pronounce words that they don’t know the meaning of.
Neither of these methods works 100% of the time, so all spellers, to be good spellers, must use some supplemental routes to become accurate spellers.
- Practical Spelling: The Bad Speller’s Guide to Getting it Right Every time (Basics Made Easy in 20 Minutes a Day) by Anna Castley provides the speller with both visual and auditory routes to improve spelling.
- Spelling Smart: A Ready-To-Use Activities Program for Students with Spelling Difficulties by Cynthia M. Stowe also provides the speller with both visual and auditory routes to improve spelling.
Define Spelling Problem
Visual and auditory spellers both have strengths and weaknesses that they bring to the task of learning to spell well. No one person needs to know everything there is to know about spelling to learn to spell well; instead, each one needs to know what his/her weak areas are. To know what areas you need to work on, take a spelling test:
Based on what you learn from the spelling tests, choose which strategies you need to practice to become a better speller.
- Traditional Supplemental Routes to Good Spelling
- Learn the Spelling Rules
If you know the spelling rules, you can apply them or recognized English spelling patterns in order to spell correctly.
Mnemonics (memory devices to help you remember spelling rules) work well for rules. The chant “I before e except after c” is an example of a mnemonic.
Knowing the rules can help in spelling many tricky words. To review spelling rules, see:
- A Writer’s Reference pp. 283 – 86
- A Writer’s Reference Online edition in section S1
- Spelling 101 by Claudia Sorsby lists all the spelling rules
- Practical Spelling by Anna Castley gives rules
- Painless Spelling by Mary Elizabeth Podhaizer lists rules
- http://spellingbee.com/cctoc.shtml
Spelling Helpers
Assistive Technology Routes to Good Spelling
Create Your Own “Word Wall”
In some homes and classrooms where children are learning to read and spell, everything is labeled with its words. In other classrooms, when the students learn new words, the words go on the “word wall” where all students can see the words they need to know daily. You can create your own word wall by correctly spelling words you may need to know on index cards or some similar device. You can also purchase blank study cards on a ring to use for your personalized word wall. When you need to use a word you have difficulty with, it is there correctly spelled in your study card file.
Use Spell-checkers
Spell-checkers have been around since the 70’s in the form of small hand-held dictionaries, which are now available very cheaply. Most are very helpful because you do not need to know how to spell the word. You can enter the letters you know in a word, and the machine will provide alternatives until you find the right word.
Most word-processing programs now have automatic spell-checkers as part of the package. Most poor spellers can recognize the proper spelling of the word when the program provides a list of possible words to choose from.
While spell-checkers can discover misspelled words and suggest alternative spellings, most are not “smart” enough to distinguish between legitimate spellings of the words, i.e., homonyms. So if you have one form of, for instance, their/they’re/there, the spell-checker will not flag that word, even if you do not have the one with the right meaning. You will still need to reread your work for homonyms to be sure you have the spelling that means what you want to say.
Spell-checkers work well for people who are visual spellers, that is those who can recognize the right form of the word when they see it, even if they don’t have the correct spelling embedded in their minds.
Dictionaries
On-line dictionaries
For a listing of online dictionaries see
http://www.libraryspot.com/dictionaries/
Many of these dictionaries give not only the meaning, the correct spelling, and the history of the word, but also pronounce the word for you.
Word Games On-line
One way to improve your spelling is to play games that require you to spell. Playing such games builds up your ability to recognize spelling patterns. Try some of the following to improve your spelling:
Special Spelling Problems Homonyms
Homonyms are words that sound alike or nearly alike but have different meanings and different spellings. Most spell checkers will not flag homonyms for you because each form of the word is an acceptable spelling, so you will have to find other means to find them.
Your hand-held spell checker may offer a choice of the forms of homonyms for you.
Create an individualized proofreading sheet to make corrections. To create this sheet, consult lists of homonyms, such as
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/notorious.htm which provides an extensive list of homonyms and easily confused words.
Books Worth Buying to Improve Your Ability to Spell
- Anna Castley. Practical Spelling: The Bad Speller’s Guide to Getting it Right Every Time (Basics Made Easy in 20 Minutes a Day). Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, 1998.
- Claudia Sorsby. Spelling 101: 101 Handy Rules and Simple ExercisesLet You be Letter-Perfect Every Time. New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1996
- Laurie Rozakis. EveryDay Spelling. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Direct, 1998.
- Mary Elizabeth Podhaizer. Painless Spelling. New York: Barrons, 1998.
Specialized Spelling Dictionaries
Ruth Gleeson Gallager and James Colvin. Words Most Often Misspelledand Mis-pronounced. New York: Pocket Books, 1963.