The Spanish language has a relatively simple grammar, syntax, and sound structure. There are only around twenty phonemes and much vocabulary has a simple CVCV construction (consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel). A 1951 report to UNESCO described its spelling as 'an almost ideal' writing system of symbol matching sound. Language change has resulted in a tendency to voice previously voiceless consonants, but Christian (1982: 359) asserts that such mismatches are 'insignificant' by comparison with English problems.
Spanish 'morphophonemic' spelling (representing units of meaning as well as sound-symbol correspondences) is noted for its ease of learning, although Spanish scholars such as Mosterín (1982) still publish books proposing minor reforms and school teachers still see room for improvement. Such reformers want to adjust some residual pseudo-etymology and graphemes which have become obsolete, some minor spelling problems in consonant clusters, some confusions in syllables, some phonemes with more than one grapheme, and the one single silent letter, and some think there are too few or too many consonants or vowels.
Historically, the Spanish Language Academy was founded in 1714 to settle matters of language and spelling after Renaissance scholars had produced confusions with misplaced Latinisations. The Academy's reforms of 1844, promulgated by royal decree, were based on criteria of pronunciation, etymology, popular usage, and conventional differentiation. The Academy remains the official intercontinental arbiter, and is regarded with 'respect and distrust' (Urdaneta, 1982, writing from Latin America ).
Its fortunate combination of language and regular writing system makes Spanish easy to learn. Judith Goyen (1989) thought that the important role given to phonics methods in six successful and popular Spanish reading programs was because they suited the regularity of the spelling. Christian (1982) considered that the level of discourse and content in what children can be given to read in Spanish was well ahead of that in American schools, because the writing system matches the sound system, which means that 'speakers of Spanish can master reading and writing very quickly and can begin to acquire information from the printed page more easily and from an earlier age.' as was also concluded from a 1967 Columbia University study in Puerto Rico.
Christian claimed that in his experience 'more than a thousand' Hispanic-American students showed a significantly higher level of competence in acquiring information from the printed page, than their Anglo peers reading in English'. He also claimed that a high proportion of Spanish-Americans who have had as little as six weeks tuition, perhaps taught by their fathers to read a newspaper before they were six, can read Spanish literary classics for entertainment. Surveys have found a high proportion of high-school students who read in Spanish without formal tuition and of their own volition. Carroll & Chall (1975) remarked as if it was a truism that children in bilingual schools learned to read faster in Spanish than in English, but did not state whether their eventual reading was also more efficient.
source: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/wspanref.htm
Spanish 'morphophonemic' spelling (representing units of meaning as well as sound-symbol correspondences) is noted for its ease of learning, although Spanish scholars such as Mosterín (1982) still publish books proposing minor reforms and school teachers still see room for improvement. Such reformers want to adjust some residual pseudo-etymology and graphemes which have become obsolete, some minor spelling problems in consonant clusters, some confusions in syllables, some phonemes with more than one grapheme, and the one single silent letter, and some think there are too few or too many consonants or vowels.
Historically, the Spanish Language Academy was founded in 1714 to settle matters of language and spelling after Renaissance scholars had produced confusions with misplaced Latinisations. The Academy's reforms of 1844, promulgated by royal decree, were based on criteria of pronunciation, etymology, popular usage, and conventional differentiation. The Academy remains the official intercontinental arbiter, and is regarded with 'respect and distrust' (Urdaneta, 1982, writing from Latin America ).
Its fortunate combination of language and regular writing system makes Spanish easy to learn. Judith Goyen (1989) thought that the important role given to phonics methods in six successful and popular Spanish reading programs was because they suited the regularity of the spelling. Christian (1982) considered that the level of discourse and content in what children can be given to read in Spanish was well ahead of that in American schools, because the writing system matches the sound system, which means that 'speakers of Spanish can master reading and writing very quickly and can begin to acquire information from the printed page more easily and from an earlier age.' as was also concluded from a 1967 Columbia University study in Puerto Rico.
Christian claimed that in his experience 'more than a thousand' Hispanic-American students showed a significantly higher level of competence in acquiring information from the printed page, than their Anglo peers reading in English'. He also claimed that a high proportion of Spanish-Americans who have had as little as six weeks tuition, perhaps taught by their fathers to read a newspaper before they were six, can read Spanish literary classics for entertainment. Surveys have found a high proportion of high-school students who read in Spanish without formal tuition and of their own volition. Carroll & Chall (1975) remarked as if it was a truism that children in bilingual schools learned to read faster in Spanish than in English, but did not state whether their eventual reading was also more efficient.
source: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/wspanref.htm