Intermediate/Advanced Spelling through Morphology
There is a very common view about English spelling and you might even believe this yourself:
English spelling is crazy!?
There's 44 different sounds, but there's 500 plus ways to spell those sounds. So how can we teach spelling in a way that makes sense?
It is true that we don't always represent those 44 sounds in the same way. We don't have enough letters in English, so we have to combine some of those letters together to make these sounds. But we also, haven't been very consistent keeping the spelling very uniform as we've collected words into our language. And that's left us with what's called a very deep orthography, spelling system that has many different layers, taking English readers/spellers around three years to master the spelling system. It’s helpful then for our students to start to understand the basic layers and then the more intermediate layers before they tackle the really irregular or words that require a lot of explanation.
This length of time to learn English contrasts with other languages like Italian, Spanish and Korean for example, where it usually only takes about 12-18 months to master the spelling system because of their relative regularity.
Why morphemes?
So how can morphemes support spelling? Well, all words are built from morphemes and bases carry the meanings of words. When the pronunciation changes, often the spelling will stay the same. So the morphemes will actually still be visible. And that's pretty true of a lot of more complicated words in that the spelling will stay the same while the pronunciation might change. And that's one of the reasons why it's really useful.
Morphemes also unlock the meaning and structure of English words in a way that learning disconnected words in isolation does not.
Watch MY presentation here↓
You may also be interested in …
This free webinar from Shane Pearson about PhOrMeS for THINK FORWARD EDUCATORS which I reference closely in this talk.
ABOUT me
Dr Nathaniel Swain
I am a Teacher, Instructional Coach, Researcher and Writer. I am passionate about language, literacy and learning, and effective and engaging teaching for all students.
I teach a class of first year foundation students, in a space affectionately known as Dr Swain’s Cognitorium. I also work as Science of Learning Specialist in my school.