So, how does a child leam to spell by phonological analysis? Do children use the same strategies as they would when asked to spell new words (for example, reticent) or even pseudo-words (for example, oldier)? There are many ways in which we can answer this question.
First, let us look at the different ways children approach spelling. Children who have already had some instruction in reading, writing, and spelling, and are deemed good spellers, will spell very familiar words automatically. The spelling is known so well that when they see a card oh which the word is written with one of the letters misplaced, their reaction typically is, “It doesn’t look right!” This kind of strategy could be called automatic, that is, the children are spelling the words without much effort. The words are well rehearsed in terms of their spelling. Such children, as well as adults, sometimes use a technique to check the spelling of a certain word by writing it and deciding whether or not it looks right.
A second strategy used in spelling is phonological analysis, that is, breaking the word down into segments and then writing each segment. Once children have learned to do this, they can change a word they have spelled to a new word, whose spelling they may not know, by adding prefixes or suffixes. For example, having learned to spell the word typical, they can spell atypical just by adding a prefix, or typicality by adding the suffix ity. Adding bits and pieces to a word and thus changing it is called morphology.
We learn to spell many words by making morphological changes, such as adding ed to many verbs to change them into the past tense. For example, braid-braided, allude-alluded. However, children have to remember when not to add ed to convert the word to its past tense. Examples of irregular past tenses abound: slept, went, stole, and met rather than sleeped, and so on. Specific transformations of a word can change its meaning by the form of its past tense. For example, the noun ground can be used as a verb with grounded as its past tense but ground is also the past tense of the verb to grind.
The examples given illustrate two of the strategies for learning to spell. The addition of ed for a past tense is the applying a rule strategy. Examples of other rules used for changing the spelling of a word are the addition of ing (come-coming), not doubling the consonant immediately before the vowel if the word ends in one, and so on. This is why the teacher in elementary school sometimes drills rules into the head of the young speller. But sometimes the young spellers themselves can figure out the rules and say them back to the teacher unsolicited.
The example given of the word ground, which can be a noun or a verb or the past tense of the verb to grind, requires comprehension, or semantic knowledge. We may wonder whether the semantic char-acteristics of the word are at all important for spelling since a great number of words can be spelled even if children do not know their meanings. There are many instances where the meaning of the word assists in spelling it. Take the word man; we can spell manly, manned, human, and humane.
If we know the meaning of these words it becomes easier to remember the spelling. How do I spell lassitude? Does it have anything to do with the word lass, which is a girl? Is the word aptitude derived from apt? We know that humidity has a root which has the component h-u-m but the same component is present in humour or exhume. The semantic strategies that are helpful with spelling probably appear at a later stage than automatic, phonological, morphological, or even rule-governed strategies.
Does the word rational have anything to do with the word ratio? If we know that it does, all we have to remember is to write ratio and add nal. (Did the Greeks really mean that a rational person knows ratios? Was that person logical and mathematical?)
To recapitulate—a word has to be sounded out, but for fluent writing or spelling it must be written automatically and without effort. We learn spelling by using consistent rules. Contrary to widespread belief, a great deal of English spelling is quite consistent, although there are a number of irregular words. Thus, spelling is rule-governed, but irregular words such as know and tongue have to be remembered as logographs or pictures.
The logographic strategy is not, then, left behind as an anachronism when we learn to spell phonologically or by applying spelling rules. We also use meaning, semantic knowledge in other words, to help us spell. These strategies help us enormously to spell words which we have never seen in writing or which are used infrequently.