This review highlights some areas of current interest in teaching students to spell and how spelling skills develop. The topics covered in the paper include: theories of spelling acquisition, theories guiding effective teaching, the importance of word study approaches across the age range, the influence of technology on learning to spell, spelling…

This paper explores the question of whether the ability to spell depends mainly on visual perception and visual imagery, or on other equally important auditory, cognitive, and motor processes. The writer examines the evidence suggesting that accurate spelling draws on a combination of visual processing, visual memory, phonological awareness,…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an instructional spelling approach, Word Study, on the spelling ability of adults with limited literacy proficiency. Ten adults (five control and five experimental) were given the Developmental Spelling Assessment. The control participants received traditional spelling instruction, and the…

The teaching of spelling is outlined and discussed in this pamphlet. Three major steps are described: the prewriting stage, teaching the principle of alphabetic writing--the understanding that spelling requires the sequencing of sounds within a word, and teaching the spelling patterns of written English. The pamphlet concludes that two current…

The author feels it is psychologically beneficial to permit ghetto children to spell phonetically before teaching them to use standard spellings. (AF)

This booklet presents a simplified and improved method of writing or spelling English, which simply uses the standard 26-letter alphabet to spell words the way they are pronounced. The booklet criticizes the conventional English spelling system as unnecessarily difficult, inconsistent, and illogical and suggests that easy-to-learn "Basic…

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)

Discusses the pros and cons of phonics for spelling. (MP)

Suggests a spelling riddle activity that can stimulate students' awareness of the complexities of English while providing practice in dictionary skills, phonics, and vocabulary development. Presents several examples. (MS)

Describes "Word Building," a system for teaching phonics based on students' natural tendency to seek out pronounceable word parts. Describes how one spelling pattern might be taught in a typical lesson. (SR)

This succinct guide notes that spelling rules are sometimes strange and wondrous and often more than a little complex. The guide presents rules for: (1) forming plurals and "s" forms of verbs; (2) forming possessives; (3) adding suffixes; (4) forming prefixes; and (5) the "ei" or "ie" rule. The guide notes the…

Forty-five phonic generalizations were applied to 5,431 words selected from six spelling programs. Also examined was the grade level at which each generalization was introduced; and the applicability of phonic generalizations to the spelling vocabulary was compared to the applicability of the generalizations to reading vocabularies as determined…

Describes efficient spelling instruction as that which makes maximum use of the fact that part of our competence as speakers of English is our knowledge of underlying phonological forms." (Author/SW)

Traditional methods of teaching spelling emphasized that pupils might write each new spelling word correctly and repeatedly from a weekly list in the spelling textbook. Some weaknesses in this approach are that rote learning is being stressed without emphasizing application of what has been learned, and that there is nothing which relates the…