Instead, there is a quick and easy procedure to learn the spelling of any English word, using 9 simple steps. It is important to tell students to follow each one of these steps in the process of learning how to spell new words:
1. Say the word out loud to yourself. This allows you to hear the sounds in the words, in relation to the letters used to spell it. (This is called the sound-symbol relationship). You are using both listening and speaking skills here, and gives you a chance to ‘taste’ the word in your mouth.
2. Analyse the word. Look at the word in print. Either break the word into its syllables, or see if you can break it into its prefix, root and suffix. This will help with the later spelling of the word. Here you are using the reading skill.
3. Spell the word out loud. While you are looking at the word, spell the word syllable by syllable, or by its prefix, root, then suffix. This breaks the word up into chunks, and makes it easier to spell, especially if the word is long. Here you combine reading, speaking and listening.
4. Close your eyes and spell with word out loud. Visualize the word in your mind’s eye, and spell it syllable by syllable, or again by its grammatical parts. You are reinforcing the listening and speaking skills, and you are engaging the mind in the learning process.
5. Do a spell check. Did you spell the word correctly?
6. Now, write the word down. As you did in step 4, spell the word by its syllables, or by its grammatical parts. Now you are engaging the writing skill.
7. Do another spell check. Did you write the word correctly?
8. If you spelled the word wrong, go back to step 1 and repeat the process until you’ve written the word down correctly.
9. (The most important step) USE the word as often as you can. The more you write the word, the more familiar you will become with the spelling, and over time, you will begin to spell the word without thinking about the spelling.
And this method works. Try it on something simple, like antidisestablishmentarianism, or Superkalifragilisticexpialidocious. If your students can learn how to spell these two words, they can learn to spell any word in English.
Michael Bunyak
English Teacher at Canadian Education College, Singapore