Top 8 Spelling Strategies
(for ESL students and native speakers)
If you're interested in the Spelling Strategies Course mentioned in the video then you can get 20% off unlimited learning (and that includes: my Spelling Rules Course and the Beginner's Guide to Punctuation too) click here
English spelling is puzzling for native speakers, and challenging for ESL students too! Especially if your language is written phonetically - that is all the letters relate to a sound - you probably find English spelling crazy and irritating. But the good news is English spelling isn't all irregular and chaotic - it's just complex and there are patterns, rules, regularities and reasons why English spelling is the way it is.
Yes, some words are tricky to spell, so good spellers use a combination of strategies to help spell and recall words:
1. Strategy 1 is see a word within a word
believe is a tricky spelling with the ie or ei pattern.
Can you see the word in believe that means to not tell the truth?
The word within believe is lie, so use this in a sentence to remember it: "Never believe a lie."
young has the tricky 'ou' pattern. Can you see a word in young?
There's 'you' in young. Make a sentence to remember it - "You are so young".
You can relate memory tricks and words within words to your language.
Use anything to help you remember tricky words.
Use pictures, photos, drawings. Write sentences.
2. Strategy 2 is use sayings to help with tricky letters.
Native speakers find necessaryhard to remember, especially how many c's and s's there are. So we use a saying to help: "It's necessary to cut some services."
3. Strategy 3 is noticing how words are built with root words, prefixes and suffixes. uncomfortable = not comfortable = un + comfort + able. Knowing spelling rules is great to help you figure out why spelling is the way it is. For example, we add 'es' to words ending in x, ch, sh, s, z to make plurals and third person verbs: box - boxes, mess - messes, he teaches. We have the 'y' to 'i' rule when adding some suffixes: happy - happiness, happily; crazy - crazily, craziness. We drop the 'e' with -ing: write - writing, have - having, believe - believing. -ight- light, bright, tight, might, flight, fight, uptight, lighter, sightseeing... -tch- match, hutch, butch, notch, catch, watch...
pl- play, plan, plastic, plenty, plain, plonk...
spr- spring, sprung, spritz, sprat, spray, sprinkle...
-ject- (from Latin- throw) reject (throw away!), rejection,
projection, (to throw light on something), projectile, dejection, objection, adjective (to throw light on nouns!), injection What are the silent letters in knee, knock, sword, answer? Silent 'k' in knee, knock. Silent 'w' in answer and sword. The silent letters all used to be pronounced! So most spelling shows the history of how words used to be said/pronounced centuries ago. They are the ghosts of past pronunciations, showing us a once spoken letter but now they're there to show us the history and origins of words. If you're interested in learning more about ESL spellings strategies then click here
This is a very important strategy, especially if your language doesn't build words this way.
irregularly = ir + regular + ly, 
4. Strategy 4 is know common spelling rules and exceptions
Letter patterns are a reliable way to learn spellings.
6. Strategy 6 is know word families that are linked by meaning and pattern.
terr- (from Latin terra for earth, land, ground) terrain, territory,
subterranean, Mediterranean extraterrestrial,terrier (a dog that digs in the earth!)
-rupt (from Latin for broken) rupture,
interrupt,
disruption, eruption, bankrupt, corrupt, abrupt...
un/com/for/table, ex/tra/va/gant. Or break them into words - un/comfort/able, extra/va/gant.
8. Strategy 8 is know the history of words and spelling.
