Engaging children in the finer details of spellings can be one of the greatest challenges for teachers at all ages and stages. While some children readily pick up the idiosyncrasies of written English, others struggle well into adulthood, baffled by the trials of spelling words correctly.
Despite the perennial question of whether spelling tests work, and whether they are worth the time devoted to them, children do need to learn how to spell correctly for myriad reasons. Being able to spell has an impact on reading comprehension and phonics, it can help children who are struggling to read to see patterns and to apply those patterns to words they are reading and spelling, and it helps them to communicate effectively through writing. While the computer spell checker has been in action correcting my typos as I write this, we still want children to develop their own reliable spell checker, regardless of the age they find themselves in.
Spelling matters beyond easing reading and writing at school, too. We make quick judgements about, for example, spelling errors in adverts, books, and job applications. We expect perfection from printed literature and if companies want to be taken seriously, their online presence needs to be flawless. One of the telltale signs of a potential scam is spelling errors in communication.
In addition, research shows us that spelling skills are linked to progress in writing. When we can spell automatically, we free up thinking space for creating and composing, we can write longer narratives, and may even use more diverse vocabulary. There is also the negative impact of poor spelling on teacher assessment, whereby numerous spelling errors feed into judgements on the quality of the composition. Whichever way we look at this, good spelling matters.
What does the research say?
Several research papers on spelling have explored models of learning how to spell. However, one paper published in 2022 in the British Educational Research Journal (Capturing variations in how spelling is taught in primary school classrooms in England, Esposito, Herbert and Sumner) highlights the fact that there are gaps in our current understanding of how spelling is taught in primary schools, and suggests that, “Evidence-informed approaches for teaching spelling and effective models of continuing professional development do not sufficiently underpin pedagogical practices across the primary years.”
Approaches to spelling over the years have invariably involved spelling lists for weekly or daily testing, although these are less popular now than they were, with some schools rejecting them altogether. While these may help children to become familiar with certain words and groups of words, there is still the phenomenon of the child who gets top marks in spelling tests but who cannot then implement that learning in their writing just days after the test, and this seems to be one of the toughest nuts to crack.
Despite the great need for children to develop sound spelling skills, and the fact that the teaching of spellings takes place in primary schools across the land, there is little agreement over how spellings should be taught and what will bring out the best in our young spellers.
None of this is particularly helpful if you are a new(ish) teacher wanting to teach your children to be brilliant spellers. But if this is any consolation, the most frequently cited spelling tip from the teachers and consultants that I asked for this piece was to harness the reading/writing connection. In other words, the more children read, the easier they find it to spell, for a number of reasons. Reading helps children to learn spellings by heart, to expand the number of words they know, and to develop an understanding of spelling in context. It also helps them to retain the spelling knowledge gained from spelling tests.
What other methods can schools use to boost spelling?
In addition to ramping up the amount of reading a child is doing, the Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check approach to learning to spell is popular, as is using mnemonics as a memory aid (Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants is usually a hit!).
Other approaches to teaching spelling include marking by the letter so that children can see exactly where they are going wrong and need only focus on that part of the word in order to correct it, and exploring the etymology of words so that children can see how words are linked when broken down (think of how many words “auto” can be found in). Emphasising the relationships between letters and sounds helps, too.
We cannot get away from the simple fact that there is not a silver bullet to suit all learners. Nor can we slot learning spellings into a neat 15-minute box on the timetable that will improve results across the board. In the absence of definitive research with guaranteed results, we can all at least acknowledge that it is a bit more complicated than that!
Analysing difficulties, and selecting and implementing strategies to help takes great skill, and dedicated time. It does not seem very satisfactory, but if we are going to continue in the belief that spellings are important – and I happen to believe that they are – we are going to have to accept that getting each child to a point of comfort and competence in spelling is going to take time and a whole raft of strategies. If we do not want to loosen our idea of what we understand to be correct spelling, we are going to have to continue to spend time, effort and energy on supporting each and every child through their spelling journey. They will not all become spelling bee champions, but competence will ease their learning right across the curriculum.
Find out more…
- The national curriculum in England - English Appendix 1: Spelling (publishing.service.gov.uk)
- The reading framework (publishing.service.gov.uk)
About the author
Elizabeth Holmes
After graduating with a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading, Elizabeth Holmes completed her PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of London. She then taught humanities and social sciences in schools in London, Oxfordshire and West Sussex, where she ran the history department in a challenging comprehensive. Elizabeth specialises in education but also writes on many other issues and themes. As well as her regular blogs for Eteach and FEjobs, her books have been published by a variety of publishers and translated around the world. Elizabeth has also taught on education courses in HE and presented at national and international conferences.
