I would like to be advised on how to help children and college students overcome 'spelling mistakes'. They can be given dictation, but this is not possible everyday. Please suggest methods to bring them to the right spelling of words.
Any advice or ideas for Santhosh? What work on spelling do you do? Is good spelling important enough to merit special work in a class?Contact us.
This question is from Santhosh KumarKana. India.
Comments
rebecca1
To find a remedy for the problem of spelling mistakes, we can use flash cards with words that have missing letters and ask learners to fill in that missing letter in each word. The words we choose should be those which students frequently mis-spell. The missing letters should also be well selected to help students focus on the spelling problems. For example, the word 'foreign' could be put on a flash card like this: 'for-ign' or 'fore-gn' or 'forei-n' and so on. Another technique is that we can give the students a word like "teacher" and let them form as many words as possible from its letters and in any order. They will find words like: at, tea, ate, her, here, hear, ear, cheer, act, rat, cat, hat ... and many other words.
Ab Wali Karimi, Afghanistan
From my point of view, you regularly need to give the students five to ten words per day to memorize and then test them the next day
Jorge Pineda, Colombia
I think the best way to correct spelling mistakes is to use a code that I first heard of during a conference called ELT, which takes place in Medellin, Colombia and is held by the Centro Colomboamericano. This code allows the teacher to communicate with the students by telling them where the mistake is and what sort of mistake it is but the students have to figure out how to correct it. I have used this code in my writing courses and it has always worked for me and my students.
This is the code if any of you are interested.
WW2 = wrong word.
Wo = word order.
Exp = expression not natural.
Gr = grammar.
Sp = spelling.
T = verb tense.
? = what????? meaning not clear.
Syn = synonym.
( ) = omit.
C = capitalization.
// = new paragraph.
The students have to re-write their paper after having been corrected using the code, then the student hand in the second draft which can be corrected using the code in order to have a third draft. This assures a very well-written final version of a paper.
Sue, UKReza Shafaiy, Afghanistan
Spelling mistakes can be overcome but the many different methods depend on the ability of the person. One way which has often had good results is to write the word with which you have a problem as many times as possible till it seems easy to write without any spelling mistakes. This method has been told to a number of students with spelling problems, the result after a while was satisfactory.
Elinor, England
I often have a mini spelling test each week (about 10 words). You could try this and have a prize, for example a sticker. For some reason, children love stickers! I sometimes do written work and have it mounted and put on the wall - everyone likes having their work on the wall, but they don't like it when there are lots of mistakes! After I have taught new vocabulary, at the end of the lesson I play word games using the new vocabulary. This makes the end of the lesson fun and hopefully helps the students to remember the words. These are just a few suggestions I can think of - I hope this helps!
Personally, I feel that spelling mistakes are common and teachers do not need to force students to master them. Nowadays, computers do all the work. Even a native speaker wouldn't spell all the words correctly all the time. Correction of the error on a handwritten essay can help students know that they get certain spelling wrong, so in the future they would look it up in the dictionary and find the correct spelling themselves.
trilithium
I work with computers for a living. I hate spelling and grammar checkers. In my opinion they cause more trouble than they are worth. Developing a reliance on them is just plain sloppy. It means a skill for attention to detail, which is important in life, especially in work, remains underdeveloped. We see the consequences of this in the appalling spelling in emails and blogs. Even in headlines of prestigious publications. Because of this lazy national attitude, it no longer surprises me how many foreigners I meet who have a better command of English than many natives. As a society we had better make our minds up as to whether we value training our minds or we want to be a bunch of hopeless also-rans. Schools should be on the forefront of setting high standards, not lazily passing the job on to computer spell-checkers.
englishhh
Spelling has been always a concern when I am teaching specifically to teenagers and kids. ]For me dictations are boring and I remember those when I was studying at school... useful but not so fun. I think that the best way is to have games in class reviewing learned word e.g. scrabble, hang man, and boggle. Also, in the web you can find useful exercises where you put two words with similar spelling but one is well spelled. If you don't have the opportunity to use the web in class make it yourself. This is my recommendation. :)
Liliana Rodriguez Vega
"I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it... The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on."
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