Sound advice

A sea of waving hands vying for attention. A chorus of "Miss, how do you spell...?" It's a daily scene in many a primary school. Overwhelmed, an exasperated teacher half snaps: "Look it up in the dictionary!" But there is a mix of frustration and pity in her voice.

I can imagine several people slamming this counteractive shortcut and remarking that writing the words on the board would at least have been more helpful. Criticising such a teaching method is justified. Yet it's easy to criticise a weary teacher, especially when you have no idea of what teaching on a daily basis entails.

Now take a step further and think of teaching something as bizarre as English spelling, which is a world away from fully-articulated words.

This daunting task inspired Dictionary of Perfect Spelling. Thirty years ago, Oxfordshire primary school teacher Christine Maxwell chose to do something proactive rather than tear her hair out. The daughter of the notorious newspaper tycoon, Robert Maxwell, she compiled a reference book which enabled native and non-native speakers of English to look up the word as they say or hear it and still locate the correct version next to it.

For example, "larf" points to "laugh". Thanks to her daddy's helping hand, her dictionary was a runaway success.

Dictionary of Perfect Spelling is making a comeback with a revised edition. Updates include gizmo jargon, while barely used words have been deleted. Quite rightly too since words fall out of use while others come into being precisely because a living language is a dynamic, organic development whose vitality pulsates from the streets and nowadays also on the internet, not in any isolation-wrapped academic niche.

The revamped Dictionary of Perfect Spelling coincides with Britain's parliament giving the green light to teaching literacy by using "synthetic phonetics". This system teaches children the 44 sounds of the English language and how to blend them together to form words. This is a much more imaginative and constructive way than the "look and say method", dictionary drills or pure guesswork.

"Imaginative" here isn't one of those candyfloss buzzwords often churned out by sales reps or self-appointed gurus. In fact, "synthetic phonetics" is proving wizard at beating spelling howlers and stilted reading. It is also offering a way out of the nightmare of being labelled dyslexic before the appropriate tests are carried out. Anxiety-ridden parents who have been taught to "sound out" the words on the page when reading to their children are being rewarded with enthusiastic and fluent reading, making hurling books across the room or suffering in ego-crushing silence a beaten nightmare.

But what about the situation in Malta where rampant code-switching between English and Maltese is a far cry from our constitutionally enshrined bilingualism? I got in touch with Antoinette Debattista, education officer, Primary Curriculum (English) at the Curriculum Centre to get an inkling of how children in kindergarten and primary schools are taught how to spell in both English and Maltese.

"In kindergarten, children are exposed to and made aware of print in the environment, but they are not expected to spell," Ms Debattista explained. "Children in their early primary years are taught Maltese spelling through: exposure to words matched to pictures, words in syllables, and recycling of vocabulary (for example, songs, word games, words in sentences).

Spelling is one aspect of vocabulary that in turn is subsumed in the learning of written language which follows upon perceiving and articulating speech - a feat we take so much for granted but which demands a simultaneous grasp of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Despite the inherent differences between spoken and written language there is a fair amount of overlap between the two.

"Research shows that children tend to focus on the meaning of words and find it much more difficult to become aware of the phonemes making up those words," Ms Debattista confirmed.

"Children who aren't fully aware of the individual speech sounds in spoken words are the ones struggling with learning to read. In Malta, children have the added difficulty of having to cope with different letter sounds (Maltese and English) when learning the same letter.

"Vocabulary is acquired through the development of receptive and productive skills," she added. "Children listen, speak, read and write the language through a variety of tasks. Teachers use different strategies to enhance development including TPR (total physical response) and the multi-sensory approach. Moreover, the new primary English syllabus ensures progression in language learning. The specified learning outcomes and detailed programmes support teachers in their endeavour to promote literacy."

What main difficulties do teachers encounter? Ms Debattista stated that children in kindergarten "are often introduced to using letters (symbolic representation) too early in their cognitive development". Besides, since children learn at different rates and have different learning styles, different methods have to be used to address learners' individual needs.

In the primary years children with reading difficulties may be weak in one or more of the following:

• phoneme awareness;

• decoding (ability to sound out unfamiliar words);

• word recognition;

• fluency;

• comprehension.

Teaching children how to spell also brings teachers face to face with the need to differentiate a poor speller from a dyslexic child. Significantly, the reversal of letters in spelling out words is a common occurrence for beginning readers and spellers.

"Young children who are learning to spell go through a period of inventing their own spelling. This is part of the learning process and accuracy in spelling is usually achieved once they have mastered standard spelling. Studies show that individuals with dyslexia often have more difficulty spelling words or correctly pronouncing newly learned words in their spoken vocabulary," Ms Debattista affirmed.

Given the worry of increasingly plummeting standards in English, I asked Ms Debattista whether full immersion programmes are the answer to counteracting the problem and if so, whether there is an ideal target age. She reiterated the necessity of early intervention to raise standards.

Citing complementary education as an established support system in schools, she pointed out that learners at risk are identified during the first two years in primary school and are given the necessary support to help them learn to read and spell.

"Unfortunately, children in local schools are immediately being immersed in the formal teaching of two languages (L1 and L2) that are phonetically very distinct from each other. This could result in children confusing both languages and developing negative attitudes towards either language."

Are your children having problems reading?

Look out for telltale signs if your children refuse to open a book, if they have suddenly turned quiet or aggressive at school. Also if they are bent on clinging to or memorising their earlier stock of vocabulary without having any urge to learn new words.