Improve Spelling

Posts Tagged ‘Spell’

Have you ever wondered why spelling bee contestants are allowed to ask to have the word defined or used in a sentence?  What spelling bee champions know is these questions reveal clues about how a word is spelled.  Children can learn how to unlock the secrets of words by knowing what these questions disclose about spelling a word. 

The Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee rules state what a contestant can ask about a word.  Here’s what each question tells the speller.

1.  Please say the word again.  There are 40 phonemes (sounds) in the English language.  In order to spell a word correctly, a speller needs to clearly hear the sounds in a particular word.  Repeating the pronunciation of the word allows the speller to hear each sound uttered in the word.  The speller is then going to decode those sounds into letter combinations representing the sounds.  This would be relatively straight forward if English had an alphabet system that had a letter for each sound or a consistent method of combining the 26 letters it does have to represent the extra 14 phonemes that are not directly represented by a letter.  Nevertheless, there are many words that are spelled exactly as they sound and hearing the word correctly pronounced enables the speller to spell these words correctly.

2.  May I have the definition, please?  English is littered with homonyms (words spelled and pronounced alike) and homophones (words pronounced alike but differing in spelling, derivation, and meaning).  Just think of the complications introduced by words like dear (meaning beloved), dear (meaning costly), and deer (meaning the four-legged animal).  By requesting a definition, the speller identifies which word must be spelled.  There is also another factor which knowing the definition may unlock.  The definition may help identify the origin of the word.  Roughly 70% of English words appeared first in another language.  Pairing this knowledge with the next allowed question can help spellers enormously.

3.  May I have the language of origin, please?  About 30% of all English words come from Latin.  Concentrating first on learning Latin roots, prefixes and suffixes gives a great deal of insight into how words are spelled.  The next most important language of origin to explore is Greek.  Many of the words used in science and philosophy come to us from Greek.  After these two huge contributors to the English language come French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Turkish, Persian, and Sankrit, in rapidly declining levels of adoption.

When a word is adopted from another language, its spelling is done according to rules which allow our alphabet to represent the sounds in the other language.  The process is transliteration.  Knowing where the word came from helps the speller know which rules were used in the transliteration process.  Of course, the speller must know what those rules are, but the fact that there are rules to apply, gives the speller a better chance of spelling the word correctly.  Put that together with the definition and a speller can be pretty confident they are on the right track.  For example, knowing the word pneumonia was originally Greek and is a disease of the lungs provides the speller with important clues to the correct spelling.  Words from Greek are most likely to have the /pn/ to represent the /n/ sound in the beginning of the word.  Also the definition points to something related to air (lungs).  Now for another question.

4.  Does this word contain the Latin combining form of “ante”, meaning before?  Knowing the root word (or base word) can be very helpful in correctly spelling a larger, more complicated word.  This question also clears up any possible confusion between roots that sound similar but are spelled differently.  In this example, asking if the combining form is “ante” as opposed to “anti” will mean the difference between a correctly spelled word and a near miss. Naturally, using this method means one must learn root words.  Spellers can approach learning root words, prefixes, and suffixes in a prioritized way by remembering the contribution level of each language listed in paragraph 3 of this article.

5.  Would you please use the word in a sentence?   Hearing how a word is used in a sentence tells the speller what part of speech the word is – is it a noun, a verb, an adverb?  It also may expose whether the word is pluralized, confirms word meaning, and is an opportunity to hear the word pronounced again.  Think about the confusing word pair of than and then.  Hearing the sentence:  “Gas costs more this year than it did last year” confirms to the speller that the word needed is the conjunction than as opposed to the adverb then.

Champion spellers know how to use these questions to their advantage when trying to correctly spell a word.  Every speller can use the information revealed by these questions to spell more accurately and consistently.  Understanding how our language is encoded into letters is critical to correct spelling.

Poor spelling creates a bad impression among human resource people, who does selective hiring of personnel for the office or the company. A Lack or no ability on correct spelling might endanger future dreams and ambitions. In addition to, it is the first thing a reader sees when reading an article. It would be a big turn off then when it comes to this problem. Thus, readers might as well not to continue reading the article at all. Even making a love letter to woo someone might be a big let down given that frequent misspelled words would make impressions last.

How can we detect frequent bad spellers? Visually we see their work as awry or prettily disproportionate in composition writing. We might also see them having less confidence at all, because of the fright on misspelled words. Chances are it would really define also your personality traits due to poor skills in spelling. So altogether it would result to bad reviews among colleagues, friends, employers and etc.

Poor reading habits also contribute to ones detrimental effects on spelling. Likewise it makes a person’s vocabulary and spelling prowess to be at stagnant levels. If people are avid readers of many books, magazines, and articles then probably word retentions and additional new words would add up to the advantages of habitual reading. Plus it will also add enormous wisdom on spelling patterns in English. Reading as a habit would create lots of avenues aside from gaining knowledge about certain topics.

Therefore, reading and writing should be enjoyed as a habit not in the sense on conforming to authorities that would require you to do it. Reading and spelling goes hand in hand. If someone is poor in reading then he/she is also poor in spelling. Otherwise, if someone enjoys reading serious books and pondering their topics seriously would incessantly contribute to ones self improvement leading to beneficial career enhancements in the future if the habit is started early. It is an avenue that is to be develop as a foundation in learning academically.

To parents who thought spelling as minor issue with regards to children’s academic improvement will lead to serious flaws. In the event that spelling is taken for granted. All added context of learning will take a nosedive. It is very much advice that learning spelling at a young age will do so much.

Spelling noteworthy kids have more edge when it comes to reading, reading speed, reading comprehension, and vocabulary skills. Their future looks brighter because of these smart skills.

Spelling English words can be challenging.  Schools and businesses expect correct spelling.  The better your spelling skills are, the more likely you are to do well in communicating your ideas whether you write scholarly papers, articles, or advertisements.

Apply these simple strategies to improve your spelling skills.

<b>Use mnemonics. </b>  Mnemonics are rhymes or phrases which make memorization easier.  A common spelling mnemonic is “i before e, except after c or when sounded as a as in neighbor and weigh”.  You can make up your own mnemonic for any word you find difficult or for remembering other spelling rules.

<b>Say it right. </b>  Many of us get a little lazy in our everyday conversations and do not pronounce words properly.  For instance, it is fairly common to drop the “g” at the end of the “–ing” suffix.  So running becomes “runnin”.  While people will understand what you mean, if you spell the word the way you say it, you would be incorrect.  Be sure you pronounce a word correctly and you are more likely to get the spelling correct as well.

<b>Play word games. </b>  Improve your spelling skills by playing fun word games.  Word searches, hangman, crosswords, Scrabble, and other word puzzles reinforce spelling skills.  You can buy books which contain collections of word puzzles or search the internet on any of the games mentioned here.

<b>Research. </b>  There are two areas you can research which will give you excellent practice material.  Search the internet for “spelling lists”.  Download those that interest you and use them to learn how to spell new words.  The other area to search is for Latin and Greek roots, prefixes, and suffixes.  More words in the English language are based on these two languages than are based on Old English!  Learning the Latin and Greek roots and affixes (prefixes and suffixes) will increase your spelling skills tremendously.

<b>Know which word you are spelling. </b>  Many “spelling” errors are actually problems with selecting the correct word.  Homonyms are often the culprits.  Homonyms are words that are spelled differently but sound the same (homophones) or words which are spelled the same but have different meanings and different pronunciations (homographs).  One of the most commonly confused group of homonyms is their, they’re, and there.  Spend time reviewing the <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://pilinutpress.com/index_files/CommonlyMisusedWords.html”>most commonly misused words</a>.  Make sure you clearly understand when to use each word and what its meaning is.

You can be a better speller.  Faithfully practice every day using one or more of the spelling strategies presented here.  You will very quickly see your spelling is improving.

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