Why is analytical spelling so critical?
What is analytical spelling?
Analytical spelling is structured spelling from dictation--not from memorization. Students listen and respond to spoken words by converting sounds and structures into letters and combinations of letters. Analytical spelling requires students to take words apart and put them back together by focusing on sounds, meanings, and grammatical structures. Analytical spelling requires students to ask the most critical questions: Why is the word pronounced this way? And how do the word's definition, origins, grammatical structures, and usage determine its spelling?
The English writing system is a representation of its spelling system. Written words are simply printed spellings of those words. To read words, students must understand how the words are pronounced and what the words mean. English orthography (or its writing and spelling system) combines sounds and meanings. To spell well, students must understand how sounds (phonemes) are represented by letters or combinations of letters and how meanings (morphemes) are embedded in spelling. Students must study how sounds and meanings determine how words are spelled, pronounced, and used in sentences. When students focus on the sounds and meanings of words, they develop outstanding reading skills because reading is the art of decoding how words sound, what they mean, and how they are used in sentences.
Why is analytical spelling so necessary? Analytical spelling helps children to develop the following skills:
Children learn to focus and listen intently because the words are being pronounced. So analytical spelling enhances focus and listening skills. Intensive auditory training is essential to help children overcome reading difficulties and disorders such as dyslexia. Kids diagnosed with dyslexia should learn to spell well so that they can read well.
Analytical spelling enhances pronunciation. It teaches children how to pronounce words syllabically. All English words are pronounced according to syllable patterns. When students hear and analyze words, they learn how those words are pronounced and how they are accented syllabically.
Analytical spelling enhances phonemic awareness because it requires students to focus on the sound structures of words. Students learn to listen to phonemic sounds to represent those sounds as letters.
Analytical spelling also improves morphemic awareness. Morphemes are the irreducible parts of words that contain their meanings. English is a sound and meaning system. English words consist of phonemes for spelling and morphemes for spelling and meaning. In other words, English is a phonemic-morphemic system. English spelling consists of sounds and meanings. Sometimes the way a word sounds in English is different from the way the word is spelled because English spellings also contain the morphemes or meaningful elements of the words.
Analytical spelling also requires students to think about the etymology or the origins of words. To decode the spelling of a word, it is often helpful to know its language of origin. Latin, Greek, French, and Anglo-Saxon are the most important languages in forming English. When students know a word's origin, they can then use that language's spelling rules or patterns to spell and define the word correctly. Latin, Greek, and French word parts are essential to understanding how to decode and spell hundreds of thousands of complex English words. Simple English words are often derived from Anglo-Saxon. But compound and more complex words consisting of word parts such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes find their origins in Latin, French, and Greek. Knowledge of those word patterns is essential for understanding, spelling, and pronouncing complex words.
To summarize, structured analytical spelling (or spelling from dictation) requires students to focus on English's underlying sound and meaning structures. Analytical spelling requires students to think deeply about the origins of words and their phonemic and morphemic structures. Analytical spelling enhances auditory, listening, and focusing skills since word analysis requires intent listening and thinking at the same time. Analytical spelling requires deep knowledge and deep thinking about the word structures of English. It requires an understanding of sounds, vocabulary, and grammar. English orthography is based on how words sound, what words mean, and how words are used in sentences. This is why champion spellers ask questions about the origin of the word, the meaning of the word, and how the words are used contextually or in sentences.
Analytical spelling enhances reading skills because it teaches students to think about the structures of the writing system. Students that spell well must focus on phonemes (sounds), graphemes (letter symbols), morphemes (meaningful parts), and syllable structures (vowel-centered rhythmic sections of words.) Students who understand these structures will always be able to read exceptionally well because reading requires the translation of phonemes, syllables, and morphemes into coherent sounds and meanings. When kids learn analytical spelling early, they become adept at reading complex texts and defining difficult words. These advanced reading skills help them gain more knowledge about words and the world, which enables them to read with comprehension and write with clarity. In short, analytical spelling skills teach reading and writing skills. Kids who spell well, read well.