The keys to spelling proficiency

THE core of this latest series is to address the 10 common problems that individuals from all walks of life encounter when endeavouring to improve their spelling skills.

Incorrect pronunciation is one of the main reasons why many people spell words wrongly and one of the underlying negative practices is the misuse of the “schwa” sound.

The “schwa – uh” sound is the short, sharp “a…” sound one hears in words such as panda, comma, amuse, ago and again.

Today, this neutral “a...” sound is being used in pronunciation, not just for some appropriate words beginning and ending in “a” but wrongly for a wide variety of symbol combinations, eg. “farmer > farma”, “actor > acta”, “metre > meta”, “colour > cola”, “demand > damand”, “effect > affect”.

While it might seem natural to say “runna” and “butta” instead of “runner” and “butter”, when it comes to improving one’s spelling skills, there is value in adopting the practice of initially pronouncing these words in a “pure” or exaggerated form, thus emphasising the end combination.

It is also beneficial to build a bank of the various word families that fall into the “schwa - uh” category, eg. jumper, winner, summer; labour, harbour, neighbour; metre, centre, theatre; furious, curious, spurious.

Other words are spelt wrongly because they are not pronounced correctly.

Words ending in “ed” such as slipped are wrongly spelt with a “t” eg. slipt.

Other times, letters are added or omitted, eg. “perseverance” is mispronounced as “perserverance” and is then spelt wrongly with an additional “r”.

Similarly, the word ”government” is pronounced without the “n” and is spelt incorrectly as “goverment”.

When teaching or learning English, there is merit, for both the “teacher” and the “student” alike to always pursue a strict syllabic approach to pronunciation, even if it may mean slightly exaggerating particular sounds.

For example, factory should be fac/tor/y, not fac/try or fac/ter/y. Another example: the word apply should be ap/ply, not a/ply.

Similarly, “r-ending” combination words should be pronounced distinctly — not as a “schwa-uh” sound, eg. actor, not acta; swimmer, not swimma; nectar, not necta.

To be able to spell well, one also has to be able to distinguish or detect the distinct sounds that a word makes when it is being pronounced.

This requires a person to know both the regular as well as the irregular sounds that single symbols, blends, digraphs and multi-symbol combinations can make.

The reason why many people cannot read or spell well is because they do not know what symbols make which sounds and vice versa.

The major challenge facing anyone beginning to learn English or wanting to improve their literacy skills, is to learn the symbols that produce more than one sound.

The task is even more arduous because different symbol combinations can make the same sound, eg. the “air...” sound in hair is also made by “are” in mare, the “ear...” sound in bear is also made by the “ere...” in there, the “ar...” sound in canary is also made by the “eir...” in heir.

The importance of understanding that a symbol combination can make more than one sound is highlighted by the situation where a new English learner encounters the word yearn having only ever learnt that “ear” says “air...” as in bear or “eer...” as in fear.

One of the proven ways to enhance one’s spelling proficiency — and the approach also applies to pronunciation and word recognition — is to build families or groups of related words.

In 4S, these groupings are called either Sound Families or Word Families.

4S contends that if or when learners know how to spell and pronounce a particular word with a known symbol combination, they are then usually able to also spell and pronounce numerous other sound and symbol-related words.

An example of the success of adopting the Sound Family approach can be demonstrated by: precious — anxious — cautious — noxious — conscious — vexatious, etc. that is, words ending in the same symbol combination that makes the same sound.

In this case, it will also be noted that the common final ending “ous” symbol combination is preceded by a “sh...” sounding digraph or trigraph.

Again, the value of the Word Family approach is demonstrated by one knowing that in “ae” words, the first vowel “a” is almost always silent while the second vowel “e” says its own name, eg. archaeology, Caesar, encyclopaedia, faeces, haemophilia, leukaemia, paediatrician, etc.

•  Keith Wright is the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S) — a modern, innovative and proven method of accelerating the learning of English. The 4S methodology and the associated Accelerated English Programme (AEP) mentioned in this fortnightly column are now being used internationally to enhance the English proficiency of people with different competency levels. For free PDF copies of The Superior Guide to Spelling and The 4S Keys to Understanding Pronunciation and Spelling, e-mail [e-mail].