*paper presented at the webinar via Zoom Teleconferencing last March 6, 2021 sponsored by New Era University College of Education, PhD Bilingual Education and Polytechnic University of the Philippines Graduate School, MA Filipino
Good afternoon everyone.
I will be discussing how English spelling evolves and the importance of having good spelling skills. Why do you think some English words are difficult or hard to spell?
According to Oxford University Press, one source of difficulty is inconsistent pronunciation. We usually tend to spell the words based on how they were pronounced. This may be true in Filipino words, but mostly not in English words. For example, the word “Wednesday”. We do not pronounce the word as /wed-nez-dei/… but we are spelling the word not as we pronounce it.
On the same site, you could find an article presenting the top 20 words difficult to spell based on a poll done on August 6, 2010 and quoted in Daily Telegraph by OnePoll. OnePoll is a survey-led marketing research company specializing in online and mobile polling and has offices in London and Bristol. Let’s see the words:
2. Definitely 12. Supersede
With the identified terms, we can also identify the reasons for the spelling difficulty. One is the uncertainty and confusion as to when to use “c” rather than “s”, or “e” in place of the usual “i”. Another one is the dilemma of the “double letter” and according to the site, by far, the most difficult hurdle to the speller. And last, is the foreign nature of the word with the unexpected combination of letters. This is so, according to the website nextstepenglish.com, described English as a hodgepodge of many languages. To illustrate this, the site presented a brief timeline of the English language. So, let’s go and travel through time:
As we had seen from the timeline, English language evolved so many times, borrowing words making spelling a challenging skill.
This was cited by the Spelling Reform Association thru its bulletin dated 1879. And the association stated:
The following year, 1880, the spelling of the name of the association has changed to Speling, take note that it is with single “L”, Reform Asoshiashun, more of phonetic spelling, from its original Spelling Reform Association.
This was so because the association dealt with spelling reform with English orthography. A sample bulletin was here:
Notice the reforms introduced by the association. There is “ov” replacing “of”. Then, as the bulletin stated the spelling book held by George spells the word neigh as N-A-Y but Mr. True, from the Spelling Reform Association, spells the word as N-E-I-G-H. George encountered the ever problem of spelling English word, the word does not contain any letter sounding /a/ but were pronounced as /a/.
Then notice the exchange of dialogues regarding the word YEA and how Mr. T explained why yea is the same as YES… as Mr. T explained, they pronounced the word two ways and took out spelling from one and the pronunciation from the other. Another problem there.
Then, the word “re” which was pronounced by George as ree but corrected by Mr. T as re, as it was pronounced from its origin, French. Conflicting reforms that resulted in difficulty in spelling English words.
In the book Pagbasa at Pagsulat Tungo sa Pananaliksik by Castillo et al (2012), there is a discussion on the importance of the dictionary as a source of correct spelling.
In the discussion, an article published in the Newsweek that was in Furness’s book Guide to Better English Spelling (2000) was presented. The title of the article was “Whatever Happend to the Liberry” which showed words that were incorrectly spelled by college students of Arizona State University.
Here goes the article:
Whatever Happend to the Liberry
(This message is from Newsweek)
There are eighteen misspelled words on this page. They were
not writen by parints, kindergarden puples, enimy sergaents,
nor amature authers. They were taken from the examination papers of
young men and women who have just had the benifit of one of the best
things in American life… a college education. Proper spelling is a sign of a
well disaplined mind. In our oppinion, graduate who can’t write a
defnite, precise analisis may turn out to be a type with a tendencie
to split atoms that will assend us all through the cieling. In
the spirit of progress, a student should be encouraged to “throw the book out
the window” once in a while – but never a dictionary!
Let’s look for the
misspelled words. Of course, it’s too obvious that two misspelled words were in
the title of the article – happend and liberry which is for happened and library.
The other misspelled words were in bold.
See the words that were misspelled? We thought they were basic, simple
and easy to spell yet, in Arizona, spelled incorrectly by college students.
In 2019, an article by Christine Ro presented the new Noah Webster’s English spelling. The article has stressed out that “Simpler spelling may be more relevant than ever”. Then, Noah Webster’s spelling reforms turned “centre” into “center” and “labour” into “labor”. This was in answer to the people who pushed wider adoptions of a simpler version of English spellings.
In the US, Webster wasn’t the first or last to propose radical reform of English spellings. Fans of simplified spelling across the centuries have included prominent figures like Benjamin Franklin, and Theodore Roosevelt, who were mocked for attempting to adopt recommended changes in their spellings”. But Webster was influential where most were largely ignored. His ideas led to the proliferation in the US of (click) “labor” over (click) “labour” (click) “center” over (click) “centre”, and (click) fashon over (click) fashion, even if not all his ideas have become the “fashon”. But then, the article also stressed that no form of English is written and completely phonetically. So, therefore, English spellings need more care.
Spelling
correctly is an important skill. It is essential for good written
English. Though there are available spell-checker applications on
the internet and can make life easier, you should still make spelling exercises a part of your English study routine.
Read as often as you can because the more exposure to the language, the better
you will become at spelling the words correctly, and even at recognizing
misspelled words. List down words that are tricky
and try to use them. You may also use mnemonics – which is basically making
associations based on words and letters to remember something.
Jackson Best gave the three reasons why correct spelling is important (2017):
- Communication: Spelling is a critical
component of communication
- Literacy: Spelling and reading skills are
closely related and help develop overall literacy
- Employment: Spelling quality has a direct
impact on employment opportunities
It is therefore clear that it is very important to learn how to spell correctly and it should not be considered less important in the age of technology. Having good spelling skills is just as important as it was before different technologies were available. Teachers should teach spelling in more attractive and creative ways amidst spelling-correction applications of the modern technology.
Being able to spell is not necessarily a reflection of a child’s intelligence, it’s a skill that is important to master. That’s because poor spelling habits will follow a student and can be embarrassing for adults who still make mistakes in professional communication.
Remember, learning how to spell is very important for other basic skills, including writing and reading. These skills support you in achieving good results and progressing through various grades. What is more, being good at spelling may have an impact on your future careers.
Having said that, thank you for listening. God bless and keep safe.
References:
š Best, Jackson. The Importance of Spelling. February 23, 2017.
https://www.3plearning.com/blog/blog-importance-spelling/
š Castillo, Mary Joy A. Pagbasa at Pagsulat tungo sa
Pananaliksik. 2012
š Ro, Christine. Language Matters. Simpler Spelling may be more
relevant than ever. June 14, 2019
š Spelling Reform Association - Bulletin of the Spelling Reform
Association, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9690358
š Brief Timeline of English Language. www.nextstepenglish.com
š Oxford University Press .
20 Most Commonly Misspelt Words in English. https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2010/09/30/20-most-commonly-misspelt-words-in-english/
š https://www.readandspell.com/how-to-teach-spelling-words
