In this experiment, we examined whether beginning readers benefit more from grapheme-phoneme decoding (GPD) than from whole-syllable decoding (WSD) instruction in learning to read and write words. Sixty Brazilian Portuguese-speaking first graders (M age = 6 years 1 month) who knew letter names but could not read or write words were randomly…

Instruction in regular letter-sound relationships is a key element of teaching children to read. However, in the English language, many words have irregular spellings (e.g. "said," "are," "yacht"). What is the best way to help children learn to read these words? To date, a number of different viewpoints have been put…

A large body of research supports the conclusion that early reading instruction in English should emphasize phonics, that is, the teaching of grapheme-phoneme correspondences. By contrast, we argue that instruction should be designed to make sense of spellings by teaching children that spellings are organized around the interrelation of…

A central focus in remedial teaching is the generalisation of responses to contexts in which a student has never been explicitly instructed. Remarkably little is known about how and when generalisation occurs. In this article we examine generalisation effects in the context of spelling. Three areas are discussed: generalisation between spelling…

This resource is a compilation of three documents that support the teaching of spelling in today's schools: a discussion of "Why Spelling Instruction Matters", a checklist for evaluating a spelling program, and tables of Common Core State Standards that are linked to spelling instruction. "Why Spelling Instruction Matters"…

"We cannot allow the quality of special services to preclude conquering reading disabilities (Horne, 1978, p. 582)." This study was conducted to explore how teachers' spelling abilities relate to student outcomes. The results indicated that the students enrolled in classrooms where the teachers had the lowest knowledge of phoneme-grapheme…

Examines research on phoneme-grapheme correspondences in relation to the validity of certain phonic generalizations and concludes with implications for reading and spelling instruction. (JM)

Differences between spelling-to-sound and sound-to-spelling correspondences can cause problems in the teaching of reading and writing. (MKM)

Variations in the pronunciation of the English language need to be recognized by the language arts teacher in order to adapt materials and techniques. (JH)

This review is part of a large research endeavor to develop a mathematical model to predict spelling difficulty. It reviews attempts to answer the question: What makes a word difficult to spell? (Author)

Updates T. Clymer's 1963 phonic generalization study by largely rewriting consonant generalizations. Consonants in 17,211 words from the Stanford Spelling Word List were analyzed and Clymer's 45 rules reduced to three, which predict consonant situations with 99 percent accuracy. (SRT).

Offers an instructional sequence based on the premise that the spelling of English words very often reflects meaning more than sound and designed to help students make use of this understanding in learning to spell and to increase their vocabulary. (AEA)

Presents a group-guided invented-spelling instructional strategy called "Making Words" which teachers can use with beginning readers to develop their ability to spell words and to apply this knowledge when decoding during reading. Discusses how to plan and teach the strategy. Describes two sample lessons, and explores why the strategy works. (PRA)

Describes Marie Clay's word boxes that help children attend to phonological and orthographic features of words, developing phonemic awareness and improving word recognition and spelling. Describes a study showing that the use of word boxes with several elementary school students with learning disabilities was effective for improving and…

Three reputed advantages of using a letter-combination (LC) approach, as opposed to a grapheme-unit (GU) approach for initial word-attack and spelling instruction are critically analyzed. While LC reduces the number of elements per word, it also reduces the number of words that can be generated. LC eliminates distortion in the final…