John Bald/language and literacy

Slimmed Down Spelling. Updated, Nov 2020.

New - a commentary to this approach is here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URhQvNvX924

 

Slimmed Down Spelling was first published in the Times Educational Supplement in 2003. It gives a child four possible reasons for writing a letter or group of letters in a word. This cuts irregularity down to size, enables them to make a conscious decision rather than guess, helps them to group words with similar spellings together, and builds understanding of the way English spelling operates, as an example of fuzzy, rather than strict, logic. It is the method used to help the 16 year old, assessed as dyslexic, whose mother's comments are included in the introduction to the site.

1. They can hear a sound when they say the word carefully. This is the phonic link, and provides a little over two-thirds of the letters we use.

2. They have learned that a word needs a group of letters, such as tion or ough.

3. They have learned that a word needs an extra letter, such as a double letter.

4. They have learned that a word has an unusual or awkward element, usually because of a historical change. Eg, warm is a shared word between English and German, where it rhymes with arm.  The way we pronounce this a has changed over time, and a lot of words share this pattern - eg , water (from German Wasser), was.

The technique takes a few weeks to apply, and helps people of all ages - see above for its effect on the spelling of a very high-attaining sixteen year old. Here's how it applies to the SAT spellings above, almost all of which require the child to do more than just apply step one, and write one letter for each sound. Learning is accelerated if children are encouraged to find other words with the same grouping of letters as the one they've just learned. Even in this test, some of the groups recur. New networks and connections form in the brain as we learn each group, so that the more we know and learn, the more we have available for learning to spell new words. Using the approach to spelling from the outset enables children to apply what they know systematically, rather than having to learn piecemeal. Finding at least one other word with the same spelling pattern is the singly most important technique to boost learning - eg transporting, reporting, station, nation, boiled, soiled etc.

1. transporting    Listen carefully to avoid leaving out the second r. Group ing.

2. station            One letter for each sound, then group tion

3. boiled             Know the oi group, and ed

4. stapled           Know the le group, originally from French, and ed

5. future             Know the group ure, which is not pronounced exactly as spelled - we take a shortcut

6. enough            Know the group ough

7. feature            Know the vowel (voice sound) group ea, and ure as in 5

8. mattered         Know that this word has an extra letter (tt) and the ed group

9. produces         Know the ce combination

10. disruptive      Know that we take a shortcut in pronouncing the ive (compare alive). Very very few                               words end in v, which almost always needs an e after it.

11. shipped          As 8 - know that it has an extra letter (pp) and  ed group

12. strength         Listen carefully for the eng group

13. umbrellas       Know that this word has an extra letter (ll)

14. released         Know the ea group, as in 7, and ed

15. variety           Listen carefully - one letter for each sound, and English usually uses y (Greek i) at the                              end of a word. The down stroke gave readers an extra sign that a word was ending.

16. chief              Know the ie group.

17. familiar          Listen carefully to avoid leaving out the second i. I usually make the link with family.

18. physically       Know the ph group, and the y near the beginning of the word. 

19. substantial     Know the tial group.

20. surprised.       Sur  is less natural to modern speech than ser.  We need to know to use this group.

Slimmed Down Spelling versus the (Labour) government version

The government's latest publications on spelling make some sensible points, particularly on the historical origins of English spelling, but are loaded with jargon and cumbersome. This is typical of government documents - I put the point to the second director of the National Literacy Strategy that they needed to learn to write for an audience of teachers, and above all to take the time, in Bernard Shaw's phrase, to write a short letter rather than a wrong one. He agreed, but it made no difference. 

This alternative, Slimmed Down Spelling, is the outcome of practical work with people learning to spell. I have been working on it since about 1996, as a development from the approach to reading that appeard in The Literacy File.

 It uses plain English instead of jargon (a phoneme, for example, is nothing more or less than a sound) and has the following key points:

 English spelling is an example of fuzzy logic, in which items do not necessarily share all the characteristics of a group to which they belong. In English, roughly three-quarters of letters represent sounds. But sometimes letters work in groups, some words have an extra letter, and occasionally we do not need the letter we think we do – these cases are awkward. To learn to spell, we need to understand both the theme – the sounds – and these variations.

 Here’s how:

 1. If we hear a sound when we say a word carefully -   without taking any shortcuts - we need at least one letter for it. We use a letter to represent a sound because we hear it. This covers roughly three-quarters of spelling.

 2. Sometimes letters work in groups –eg, station has one sound per letter for the first three letter then the group tion.  We use a group when we’ve learned we need it – this way, we don’t guess at what group we might need.

 3. Some words have an extra letter, eg made, chaos.  We use an extra letter when we’ve learned we need it. Sometimes there is a function for the extra letter – eg plague where the u stops the e from softening the g, as it would in page.

 4. Sometimes, because of shortcuts in speech, or changes in the way people speak, the letter we need is not the one we think we need. These letters are awkward, and we only use them when we’ve learned we need them.  The easiest example is probably was rather than woz.  Once again, we use an awkward letter only when we’ve learned we need it.

 Once we’ve learned to spell a word – and we never copy – we find at least one other that is like it. This helps us build up our understanding of patterns, and is especially useful to people who do not find learning to spell straightforward.

 It usually takes children and adults six weeks to three months to learn to apply these principles. They work. But they are designed to teach people to spell and not to promote a political agenda. Slimmed Down Spelling has been published in The Times Educational Supplement, and is in my book, Using Phonics to Teach Reading and Spelling. I've presented it at courses at the London Institute of Education and for the Lighthouse organisation. It works.