SPELLINGS – A TOOL OF LEARNING ANY LANGUAGE

Prof (Dr) Shefali Bakshi

Dy Director, Amity School of Languages
Amity University, Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow Campus
Head, ELTAI, Lucknow Chapter

Language can be best expressed by ideas, words with articulate sounds and sentences.
The first elements of written language presented to the sight are letters that mark the
sound of the spoken form. The English Language unlike other languages is extremely
irregular in pronunciation related to the spelling. Spelling is the writing of one or more
words with letters and diacritics. Learning Spellings at an early stage builds the
foundation of learning a language. Spellings are important because they build
connections between letters and sounds, and then between words and sentences. Thus
they help in developing the skills of Reading and Writing thus building the proficiency of
the Language. Writing a word in correct spellings is the first stage in vocabulary building.
Correct spellings are also important for clear communication. Moreover, writing words in
correct spellings is important for written expression. A sentence, a paragraph, a letter or
an essay written in wrong spellings is a sign of lack of competence in English. In English,
words are not spelled according to their pronunciation and there are always exceptions to
rule. For example, in English, there are only five vowel letters – a,e,i,o and u but there
are twenty vowel sounds represented by these five letters of the English Alphabet. This
makes learning of the particular language more complex as it would result in several
pronunciations of one particular word. Further, it is only practice that will make students
acquire the rules of language and the same principle is applicable to spellings also.

Simple and easy to comprehend exercises must deal with sound system so as to develop the
pronunciation of the child right from the beginning. After having the practice of sounds, the
knowledge is applied to such exercises which are not only interesting but also illustrative
and related to what a child sees around her/him. One of the most challenging aspects of

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English pronunciation is that one vowel can have a few different spellings, so it's
important to learn the most common spelling patterns of a vowel, as well as the
exceptions. Learning these will make your pronunciation much more accurate and will
make it easier to determine the pronunciation of a word.

One needs to follow a meticulous grading of vocabulary items. The words must be
graded from very simple to slightly more difficult, but still fairly simple and relevant.
This means the exercise levels should conform to student’s spelling abilities. The student
should be able to identify the objects, characteristics and actions with the given words at
the elementary level. Pictures are another important tool/method used to make the student
relate to the object, characteristic, action or concepts. As usually, objects are represented
by nouns, characteristics by adjectives and actions by verbs. An ideal syllabus of
Developing Spellings must follow a graded level that is, from Elementary to Intermediate
and then to Advanced level. It must cover almost all the aspects of Vocabulary and
Spelling rules. If practised diligently, then one can become a master in the English
Spelling. The required Spelling Rules can be in Blue color at the beginning of the
Exercise. Uniformity must be maintained throughout the entire syllabus so that the
Learners are accustomed to using the materials. The vowels and the consonants must also
be given initially for reinforcing the English Alphabet. Some exercises must begin with
the first one done so as to guide the learner to proceed smoothly for solving the rest of
them. In adherence to the new CCE system with continuous evaluation in form of tests
and lots of practice related to the outside world that a child is surrounded with must be
the core of the syllabus. Keeping in view the modern development, spellings of mobile
phones, sms, computers, advertisements, office equipment etc must also be practiced.
Interesting activities such as crosswords, matching with pictures, forming new words by
replacing a letter, naming pictures etc can be used at the elementary level. The exercises
must be graded as they move from easy to difficult. Lot of Practice followed by
application oriented exercises such as ‘Fill in the blanks, Underline the correct option,
Tick /Circle the correct answer, Change the letter and write and so on,… will train a
learner to build the knowledge of Spellings.

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 The syllabus must introduce vowels and monosyllabic words. Students must be
made to practice the words with the help of pictures and then comprise lessons on
numbers, birds and animals, plural nouns, little one of birds and animals, different
types of fruit and the present participle or the –ing form of words. The
introduction of vowels of English can be discussed as:- For example, students are
required to put words with the same endings in a row. Thus learners will write pit,
hit, kit, sit in a row. The five English vowel letters can be given in the green frame
to make them familiar with these vowels. Further, learners can be required to
match words with the given pictures. Some words represented by the spellings oo
can be introduced. Learners can be required to write the right word with oo under
the given picture. In order to help them use these words in sentences, they are
made to fill in the blanks with given words with oo. Also for the first time
consonant letters can be introduced. Again, the consonant letters of English can be
given on the right hand side in the green frame. Such exercises will have two
aims. The first aim will be to introduce vowel and consonant letters of English
and the second aim will be to make students write only monosyllabic words. It is
also important to have a class test after the first five lessons. The class test also
helps in revising what has been practiced in the five exercises. So, the first step is
to reintroduce the vowel and consonant letters in the green frame. By now the
learners have grasped the concept of words ending with same sounds and are
made to write words that they might have come across in the first five lessons.
They may also write words which they know on their own. In order to use words
in a context, the learners are made to fill in the blanks with the correct choice out
of the words given in the brackets.

The next set of exercises can comprise of words with two middle vowel letters
(ee, ai), first students are required to practice the words under each picture and
then they are required to write the words in correct spellings. Then we can
introduce words with two middle vowel letters (ea, oa). For example, words like
meal and coat are introduced with the help of pictures. Now a new form of
exercise can be introduced. For example, with the help of the given consonant or

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two consonants and the end of s word, students are encouraged to make new
words. For instance, students are made to make words with the consonants b, l, br
with the ending ead to form bead, lead and bread.

The exercises must be of varied type: - match the words with the pictures, make
new words with the help of consonants given and the end of the word given,
exercises to replace a consonant from a given word and form a new word. These
exercises develop association between the spellings of the word and the object the
word represents. There must be also exercises like fill in the blanks with either
word given in the pictures or in the brackets. The aim is to make students acquire
the spellings of these words and use them in a context. A new exercise can be
introduced in these Lessons that is to fill in the boxes with the letters missing in
the boxes. Now students are required to add letters in three parts to make a word.
For example wa+t+ch form the word watch. However, the exercises must be
slightly difficult as the learners are required to replace the vowel letters of a word
with another pair of vowel letters. For example road is to be replaced by read and
beat is to be replaced by boot. One can also introduce the plural forms such as:
Nouns ending in suffix –s or –es have been given for practice. However, in order
to make students aware of other variations, some of the irregular noun plurals
must also be given in the green frame at the end of the lesson. Some exercises
where the students replace a consonant or a pair of consonants at the beginning of
a word and exercises on word formation with the help of given consonant or a
pair of consonants and the word ending have been given. For example, b,d,l with
ean will form bean, dean and lean. Also the opposites of the words can be
introduced to begin the concept of antonyms. In the next test, learners are made to
write the correct word under a given picture. There are exercises on forming
plurals with –s or –es. This can be a new exercise and students are required to list
the words that have the last three letters. Thus words like dear, fear, hear, near,
and bear form a set.

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 The Intermediate level can introduce Road Signals by giving the pictures of the road
signals and the learners are made to write a group of words given in the green frame
under a particular sign. In the process, the learners learn the spellings of these signals and
also are able to associate each road signal with its meaning, which may be useful to them
in future while driving a car on the road. Also one can introduce classifiers/qualifiers and
the nouns with which these are used. The learners can be required to match and write the
quantity/number with the appropriate substance. The aim is to make them learn how to
quantify an uncountable noun and also learn the spellings of the words used for
quantification. A part of Grammar is also covered by such exercises. Other example can
be the pictures of the flags of some of the countries, match the symbol of a currency with
its name, suffixes and students are made to add each one of the suffixes to the root words
given underneath, dictation of sentences in which some of the words formed in the first
five exercises have been used, doubling of the consonant letters. First the rules of
doubling or of consonant when a suffix is added to a root are explained in the green
frame. The exceptions to doubling can also explained in each frame. All exercises must
be followed by Class Test. The Spelling tests are commonly used assessment in education
that are usually used to assess a learner's mastery over the words in the spelling lessons
that they have received so far. Thus developing accurate spellings must not be an
isolated skill limited to the weekly curriculum of a syllabus as spellings are one of the
fundamental sub skills of effective written communication. Only memorization will not
help the usage of spellings in sentences, one must master the skill of appropriateness.
Therefore, effective spelling practice is a process of developing and expanding skills.

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 References

Bakshi, R. N. 2000. A Course in English Grammar. Hyderabad. Orient Longman.

Bakshi, R. N. Bakshi, S. 2011. Spelling Power Book 1 – 8. New Delhi. Srijan Publishers

Freeman, D. 2007. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press.

Grellet, F. 1981. Developing Reading Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nunan, D. 1989. Designing tasks for the communicative classroom Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Tickoo, M. L. 2004. Teaching and Learning English: a Sourcebook for Teachers

and Teacher Trainers, New Delhi: Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd.