Why spelling reform? To me, it's to make lerning easier. But one possible anser would be "to accelerate literacy". Yes, that's the biggest concern to nativ speakers of English, I presume.
Thare hav been sevral different simplifyed spelling sistems such as i.t.a. and SoundSpel. However, keep in mind these cannot be spelling reform skeems. Surely ae/ee/ie/oe/ue for long-A/E/I/O/U could be consistent, but who really wants to respell "take/night/goal/mute" as "taek/niet/goel/muet"? I don't think that's what we need.
We should seek for spellings that ar not eccentric when we lern, read, and use. I want to beleeve that moderately simplifyed spelling sistems will accelerate literacy. We don't hav to deny Magic-E, consonant dubbling, soft-C, soft-G, or even some silent letters.
A retired teacher living in U.S. now wants to launch a project. She has been thinking what would be a good project to carry out in the Los Angeles scool sistem. Sooner or later, she is going to visit mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger. To be breef, she wants simpler spelling sistem to be used for educational purposses, and wants to see what will happen. She beleeves simpler spelling accelerates literacy, but that dusn't mean denial of traditional spelling. Children in scools lern to read and write in simpler spelling, and of corse they can read traditional spelling.
She chose the House-Stile of the Simplified Spelling Society for that purposs. For details, please see this link. --- http://www.foolswisdom.com/~sbett/demo-orthog.htm#hs
The below is part of what she wrote. TS stands for traditional spelling. HS for House-Stile of the SSS. HS is used in her message.
>>Wot should we suggest for a studdy, that would convince the educational establishment and the public that the spelling is at fault? One idea would be to take a series of children's reeders alreddy avalable in TS, & get permission from the publishers to publish an edition ritten in HS, of the same mateerial.<<
>>We would then try out the 2 sets of reeders in 2 paralel scools, or eeven paralel classes in the same scool. The experimental class could be twinnd with a control class havving the same asortment of students, of the same age & developmental levvel, as the first. We expose both classes to the books to the same degree [asuming we can get both teechers to present them the same way] over a certan period of time such as one semester, or maybe a yeer. Then we compare the results in terms not only of ees of mastery but also as to wether the books wer better liked in the HS group.<<
>>One decision we would want to make is wot the age levvel should be of the children. It seems to me we would do better with children who can alreddy reed the beginning primmers. We would want to arange with the teechers to hav the children rite storys based on the books. The spelling in the storys would be corected by the teechers. Or the reserch teem could corect them, if they could be trusted to be onnest about it. The experimental group's riting would be corected on the basis of HS as corect. The control group's riting would be judged on the basis of TS as corect. The number of ''mistakes '' made by the 2 groups could then be compared.<<
Thank you for your atention.
Thare hav been sevral different simplifyed spelling sistems such as i.t.a. and SoundSpel. However, keep in mind these cannot be spelling reform skeems. Surely ae/ee/ie/oe/ue for long-A/E/I/O/U could be consistent, but who really wants to respell "take/night/goal/mute" as "taek/niet/goel/muet"? I don't think that's what we need.
We should seek for spellings that ar not eccentric when we lern, read, and use. I want to beleeve that moderately simplifyed spelling sistems will accelerate literacy. We don't hav to deny Magic-E, consonant dubbling, soft-C, soft-G, or even some silent letters.
A retired teacher living in U.S. now wants to launch a project. She has been thinking what would be a good project to carry out in the Los Angeles scool sistem. Sooner or later, she is going to visit mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger. To be breef, she wants simpler spelling sistem to be used for educational purposses, and wants to see what will happen. She beleeves simpler spelling accelerates literacy, but that dusn't mean denial of traditional spelling. Children in scools lern to read and write in simpler spelling, and of corse they can read traditional spelling.
She chose the House-Stile of the Simplified Spelling Society for that purposs. For details, please see this link. --- http://www.foolswisdom.com/~sbett/demo-orthog.htm#hs
The below is part of what she wrote. TS stands for traditional spelling. HS for House-Stile of the SSS. HS is used in her message.
>>Wot should we suggest for a studdy, that would convince the educational establishment and the public that the spelling is at fault? One idea would be to take a series of children's reeders alreddy avalable in TS, & get permission from the publishers to publish an edition ritten in HS, of the same mateerial.<<
>>We would then try out the 2 sets of reeders in 2 paralel scools, or eeven paralel classes in the same scool. The experimental class could be twinnd with a control class havving the same asortment of students, of the same age & developmental levvel, as the first. We expose both classes to the books to the same degree [asuming we can get both teechers to present them the same way] over a certan period of time such as one semester, or maybe a yeer. Then we compare the results in terms not only of ees of mastery but also as to wether the books wer better liked in the HS group.<<
>>One decision we would want to make is wot the age levvel should be of the children. It seems to me we would do better with children who can alreddy reed the beginning primmers. We would want to arange with the teechers to hav the children rite storys based on the books. The spelling in the storys would be corected by the teechers. Or the reserch teem could corect them, if they could be trusted to be onnest about it. The experimental group's riting would be corected on the basis of HS as corect. The control group's riting would be judged on the basis of TS as corect. The number of ''mistakes '' made by the 2 groups could then be compared.<<
Thank you for your atention.