Teachers have to work much harder too

English spelling inconsistencies don’t merely make learning to read and write more difficult than most other languages. Teaching those skills is harder too.

One major way in which irregular spellings make the lives of teachers more difficult is by causing them to do much more marking. Nearly all pupils need to have the minimum of 3700 common words with some unpredictable letters (keep, leap, people) corrected several times before they can spell them correctly most of the time. Identically sounding words which are spelt differently in different contexts (to, two, too) require even more marking, and still trip up most students occasionally throughout their school days, and for the rest of their lives.

It is not only teachers of English who have to help students to learn to spell. Spelling inconsistencies add to the work load of all teachers. Teachers of all subjects tend to feel obliged to correct spelling errors. Doing so is often school policy. Spelling uncertainties regularly disrupt the concentration of students when writing essays or answering questions. The spelling mistakes they commit do the same for teachers. Having to keep stopping to correct spelling errors makes it harder to concentrate on what students have written, in English as much as in other subjects.

I hesitate to call the correction of spelling mistakes ‘a waste of time’. For as long as current spelling conventions remain the accepted norm, schools have to teach them. Parents and employers expect them to do so. What is utterly beyond doubt however is that the vast majority of English spelling errors are caused by English spelling irregularities: bed, fed, led – said, head; end, bend, lend – friend; fun, run, sun – one, son, and so on for nearly 4000 words.

Apart from causing spelling errors and adding to teachers’ marking loads, English spelling inconsistencies also make teaching children to read and write less rewarding. In most other subjects, one of the great joys of teaching is to help children understand something – seeing a light switch on in a child’s brains. Having to force them to learn facts which make no logical sense is more difficult, more frustrating and less rewarding, for pupils and teachers alike. It constantly offers opportunities for failure rather than success.

There is nothing to understand about spelling differences, such as ‘leave, sleeve’ and ‘believe’. All that teachers can do is help pupils to cram them into their heads, as best they can. Other subjects involve some rote-learning too, but not so consistently. For most of them children can use some reasoning to access them when stuck. It is possible to work out that 7 x 7 makes 49. There is no logical explanation for the different spellings of ‘me, see, key’. They are simply the spelling errors or whims of early printers which have become enshrined in dictionaries and keep being copied.

Learning historical dates or geographical data has some benefits. It helps to give children a better understanding of our past and to form a clearer mental picture of our earth. Having to memorise the thousands of random English spellings is merely a matter of learning to conform to unreasonable conventions.

English spelling irregularities also make both initial English literacy learning and teaching much duller than in other languages. To save children from overwhelming confusion and to prevent too many losing interest in learning as soon as they enter school, they are initially shielded from phonic inconsistencies, such as ‘an – any, go – do, our – your’. They are first taught with just phonically reliable spellings. It is however quite impossible to write exciting or stimulating stories and avoid using all the most common irregularly spelt English words. The specially constructed texts with which English beginning readers are taught are therefore invariably rather dull.

In other European languages, teachers can choose any stories or poems that they find appealing. Any collection of words and sentences can be used to teach children the sounds of their letters, because they are all regular. There is no need to go to great lengths to insulate beginners from phonic inconsistencies, such as ‘here – there –were’ or ‘home – come’.