Spelling - A New Approach

By Pervaiz Salik

This two-week Spelling course book is meant for the general reader – especially if he/she is a weak speller. It contains methods that are not found in any other spelling book – methods that are much more effective than those currently being used. Whoever you are, this book will definitely improve your spelling.
The following are the unique features of this book:
Ten Methods guaranteed to improve your spelling 
Exercises throughout the text to test your understanding of the concepts
Solutions to the Exercise
Tried and tested successfully with students
Suitable for self-study at home as well as for the teacher
Spelling methods can be adapted to almost any word/ any level of study 
(primary/secondary/tertiary)

• Language: English
• Publisher: pervaiz salik
• Release date: Aug 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781386468264

Pervaiz Salik

I have an honours degree in Mathematics from the Open University and taught in Scotland before gaining an M.A. in English Literature. I taught English to O Level International GCSE Cambridge students for 14 years in Pakistan and was Head of Department there. My Haiku on Cultural Diversity is published in UNESCO’S Cultural Report 2000. My story of Big Samson The Big Lion (in a much shorter form) was accepted for publication by Oxford University Press, but never published for technical reasons. Currently, I have published about 12 e-books on the teaching of English, novels, short stories and poetry. My Spelling book was ranked number 1 in its category on Amazon. My interests include chess, badminton, bridge and astronomy. (Pervaiz Salik)

Book preview

Chapter 1

Introduction

For most people – even those whose native language is English – spelling is a nightmare: English being a most awkward language from this point of view. Problems are inevitable in an alphabet system which has only 26 letters but over 40 different sounds that are to be represented by these letters. This is the main reason why spelling mistakes are common, but there are many other factors too. Traditionally, spelling has been taught in two ways:

1. Memorization/ Repetition method

The teacher has a list of difficult words which are ‘practised’ daily in class. The idea is that by dictation and constant repetition of these words, the pupil will learn the correct spelling. Improvement, in fact, does take place in the short term; but since long-term memory is required, the correct spelling is later forgotten.

2. The Rule Method

Various spelling rules are given to the pupils. These must be learned by heart and applied until mastery is achieved. Unfortunately, as will be seen in chapter 4, there are very few useful rules. The so-called rules have many exceptions so that one has to learn not only the rules but also the exceptions to the rules – in effect doubling the effort needed. In this book, a novel approach is adopted making use of (for example) techniques like simplification and associated spelling words. Various classes have tried out these new techniques and found them to be much more effective than the two methods currently used in schools. Hopefully, this new approach will also work for you.

Chapter 2

Test Your Spelling

Get someone to read out these words and see how many you can spell correctly. You may have a quick look for three minutes before you start if you feel you are not confident enough to take a test at this early stage. However, the test is essential for the purpose of diagnosis and correction and should be attempted to the best of your ability. There is no time limit for the test.

(1) none  (2) soften  (3) photograph

(4) people  (5) muscle  (6) weather

(7) sugar  (8) believe  (9) sandwich

(10) butcher  (11) yacht  (12) biscuit

(13) forty  (14) tongue  (15) forgotten

(16) address  (17) knife  (18) married

(19) queue  (20) earnest  (21) match

(22) welcome  (23) patches  (24) field

(25) radius  (26) climbing  (27) choir

(28) suspicious (29) pigeon  (30) lawn

(31) scream  (32) shoulder  (33) friend

(34) creature  (35) choose  (36) noticed

(37) poison  (38) sincerely  (39) receive

(40) February  (41) coming  (42) thirteen

(43) writing  (44) swimming (45) heard

(46) justice  (47) certain   (48) ridiculous

(49) lightning  (50) accidentally.

How did you do? These words were chosen at random from traditional spelling books. If you got all fifty words correct, then perhaps you have no need for this book; if you got more than ten wrong, you certainly need this book – in which case you should read each chapter carefully (especially Chapters 4 and 5). After studying this book, you will learn how to remember the correct spellings because you will be presented with effective methods for memorizing those words you are misspelling. You should also keep a record of the misspelt words as you will need to refer to your list again near the end of your spelling course.

Chapter 3

Spelling: A Brief Chronological Development

It is helpful to retrace the development of children's spelling. This may be summarized as follows:

1. The Phonetic Stage

Here, simple words that are easy to spell are taught. The spelling matches the sounds of the words – they are phonetic words – so that spelling patterns begin to develop, such as:

bat, cat, fat, hat,...

bet, get, let, met,...

but, cut, gut, hut,...

Obviously,