Teaching and Learning Spelling

Abstract

Learning to spell is important for writing and reading, but how spelling should be taught is a controversial topic. Although children learn about spelling to some extent as they encounter words while reading, this is not usually enough to make them good spellers. Children need systematic spelling instruction to learn how the writing system works and not just memorize how words are spelled. Phonics instruction is more effective than some other instructional approaches, but teaching phonics presents a simplified and in some ways inaccurate picture of English and some other writing systems. Studying words and the patterns they follow is more effective. To use such methods well, teachers need more opportunities to learn about writing systems and the development of spelling.

Predictors of reading and spelling skills in German: the role of morphological awareness

“…Correlation and regression analyses further indicated that the impact of morphological awareness on spelling increased from third to fourth grade. This supports the idea that morphological awareness gets more important with literacy experience and increases once phoneme-grapheme correspondences are mastered and the correct spelling of a word relies on the use of larger written language units (Kirby et al 2012;Treiman 2018).…”

Reconsidering the Evidence That Systematic Phonics Is More Effective Than Alternative Methods of Reading Instruction

“…And yet again, the design of the meta-analysis did not assess whether systematic phonics was more effective than unsystematic phonics (let alone show that systematic phonics is more effective than the alternative methods they did investigate). Nevertheless, the metaanalysis is frequently cited as evidence in support of systematic phonics over whole language (e.g., Lim and Oei 2015;Treiman 2018;Van der Kleij et al 2017).…”

Singh, Samara, & Wonnacott (pre-print). Statistical and explicit learning of graphotactic patterns with no phonological counterpart: Evidence from an artificial lexicon study with 7–8-year-olds and adults

“…There is experimental evidence that skilled and developing spellers show sensitivity to all of these patterns (Treiman, 2018) and artificial lexicon studies have begun to explore whether this is underpinned by statistical learning processes akin to those thought to play a role in spoken language acquisition. However, a limitation is that no study has conclusively demonstrated the learning of purely visual graphotactic spelling patterns in children controlling for the possibility that learning could be underpinned by processes operating over spoken language.…”