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interspel.htm
7 Principles For experiment and research for a mor user-frendly English speling. A conceptual breakthru to impruve English spelling sistematically (why dbl L? sistìmaticly) without disrupting present readers, thru aplication of SEVEN PRINCIPLS:
These seven principles call for investigation as a feasible solution to English spelling as a barrier to literacy. They would change only around 2.6% of letters in everyday text, so present readers are hardly inconvenienced, and result in a more predictable relationship to the spoken language for international users, learners and spellers. Its more consistent visible relationship of related words - the 'Chomsky' feature for English spelling - could assist faster automatic visual recognition in reading for meaning. See what you think of each principle.æ Detail and rationale, exampls and a way to start follow (If the grav accents on the long vowels A E I O U do not show up on your browser, let me know.)
The "Look/Say" method was based on teaching the Dolch words (or another high-frequency list---there are several). The Dolch words are a list of 220 words that accounts for more than half of all the words we read. This method was popular during the 1960s (the "Dick and Jane" series and similar reading series were based on this method). Phonics was sometimes taught along with the high-frequency words.An analysis of a passage of text (the first 100+ words of President John F. Kennedy's first Inaugural Address) gives an idea of how many of the words we typically read are on the high-frequency list. It also indicates that we probably can't understand the meaning of a newspaper article if we could only read the high frequency words. John F. Kennedy's First Inaugural Address [Dolch
hi-freq Words] http://www.boostforreaders.com/balanced.html The Whole Language MethodThe Whole Language theory was proposed by Kenneth Goodman in the United States in the 1960's. The premise of Whole Language is that skilled readers are equally reliant on contextual information (semantics and syntax) and graphic information (phonics). Marie Clay developed Reading Recovery©, a teaching methodology based on the Whole Language premise. The unique component of the Reading Recovery© methodology consists of teaching children sophisticated semantic, syntactic, and phonological guessing strategies.A tenet of the Whole Language philosophy was that English is too difficult to decode. Venezky, an associate of Kenneth Goodman in the 1960's, presented a convincing argument (possibly taken from Frank Smith) that has been oft-repeated. However, the examples given by Venezky are addressed in the Systematic Phonics© program. Click here to see Venezky's argument and how it is addressed by the Systematic Phonics© program. The Whole Language approach had some good ideas: The Developmental Reading Assessment is the best thing I know of that has happened since the 1960's. Leveled texts, word walls, and many, many other ideas arising from Whole Language are great additions to reading instruction.Click here to go to an Annotated Bibliography of reading research. *For comments on this debate, go to the Atlantic Monthly web site, http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97nov/read.htm Venezky,, 1967 The rules of phonics are highly complex. To take a very simple example, how should a word begining with HO be pronounced? The answer depends on whether the ho is followed by t, ot, ok, rizon use rse pe ney ist ur or nest -- eleven different possibilities (all depending on what follows the initial letters. 11 possible pronunciations of ho TS WEB HS BASIC CODES hot hot
hotter
hotter get quote from Frank Smith hot hoot hook horizon house house horse hope honey hoist hour honest The Phonics MethodThe phonics method was favored by others because between 45-95% of English words are decodable (depending upon how many rules are taught) when students are taught how to decode. An interesting thing happens when you add those figures together--more than 97% of words are either Dolch words or decodable! Click here to see Kennedy's First Inaugural Address analyzed for both decodable and Dolch words.6. SET #6-PAR© THE PRIMARY ASSESSMENT OF READING is an assessment instrument designed to be administered individually at the beginning of kindergarten. Test administration takes only 5-10 minutes per child and results in scores between 0-100, which is a score that parents understand. The PAR© is in PDF format. The PAR© is the only assessment instrument of its kind available, as far as I know.* Primary Assessment of Reading. Interspel 5. Comparison of Interspel with 'how people would like to spell' Caps match Interspel.
Others were not suggested? Guy also leaves out syllables in addition to the syllabics. r =ar,er,ur, Here is the problem with Latin 1 in some email readers. It requires
The Costs of English Spelling
Costs of illiteracy and poor literacy.
But here is a start and it can be extrapolated for other years:
Somewhere I have lists of
HOW MUCH RESEARCH HAS BEEN PUBLISHED ON ENGLISH SPELLING, taken from academic ERIC and Modern Language Abstracts data-bases.
In 1966-1981 there were 2794 entries of published articles on spelling.
1982-Dec 1992 there were 2057 published research papers, ie over 200 a year.
And it's still going on -ie several hundred a years, many going round in
circles, and no end in sight.
In 1991 my thesis on spelling listed 80 pages of relevant references, and that
was only a selection.
Allan C could say it just shows you that reserch is a useless occupation to provide jobs for the middle-classes, but if R & D to IMPROVE English spelling were taken seriously, quite a lot of of the reserch on psychological needs and abilities would then become useful. But so much of it is just waste. waste, waste. I have probably told you of the colleague in my old Department of Psychology whose specialty is research on how people cope with irregular spelling and grammar - she said, 'but if English spelling were made sensible, what would happen to my job?'
October 2004
Notes on The costs of English spelling, illiteracy and poor literacy
Many children and even adults have no desire to learn to read and write. Today advantages of literacy and costs of illiteracy and poor literacy have to be spelled out, because many people are not aware of them. In the past this it may not have mattered, and some individuals today may still prosper and be happy without literacy. Australia has just held an election in a country of 20 million people, where billions of dollars were thrown around in the air - figures we could not even estimate as how much each man woman and child must pay for these promises. Hence I only give examples of money costings for spelling - but they too, run into millions and billions, directly and indirectly. Estimates of the numbers of semi-literates and illiterates always run into the millions. eg 10% of the population claimed to be 'dyslexics' (The UK Dyslexia Institute 2004). The Institute claims that poor literacy and the lack of basic skills caused by unrecognised dyslexia costs the UK economy £1 billion a year. The UK economy, it is claimed, lost £2.75 million a day because dyslexics were not being given the help they needed to fulfil their potential. The cost to the taxpayer to train one teacher in every primary school to support children with hidden disabilities, such as dyslexia, would be £36 million. The Australian Federal government alone has spent up to $91 million in one year alone on adult literacy alone - and that does not count the contribution of the States which carry most of the cost. And yet 60% of students never reappeared after the first or second sessions. What is wrong? The education industry has blown out, including costs of remediation and trying to help adults who have lost out. Hundreds of thousands of teachers are wasting their time on pretty unproductive classwork, instead of real teaching to 'inspire and to entertain'. Thousands are employed in ed-biz on reading and spelling resources and their publication and distribution - when we need good stuff for learners who have found it easier to read.
The vast industries of reading research have still not come up with answers,
and still seek grants to find out what is wrong with those who fail to learn.
Does English spelling bear any responsibility for these failures? There are many factors. This must be recognised. But a compounding factor is that English spelling is like a garden with landmines, and learners cannot predict where these will be. At present in UK and USA there is a revival of interest in spelling, with spelling bees and letters to the paper about the joys of spelling and, I quote: 'The origins and international relationships of words are a vital part of our identity as human beings. Take the ancientTown Crier's "OYEZ !," for example.' BUT * * * * * * Some illustrative references: Boulton, David. 2004. http://www.childrenofthecode.org/boulton.htm Chaplin, Marjorie. Illiteracy: Is English Spelling a Significant Factor? In Spelling Reform, ed Newell Tune, 1981. North Hollywood, Cal: Spelling Progress Bulletin. pp191,192,196 Goswami, Usha. 2003. Broadbent Lecture on dyslexic problems and language. The Psychologist. 18 September. Lemann, Nicholas. The Big Test, about the US SATS (Standard Achievement Tasks) in reading. Scores were at 478 in 1963; by 1980 this had dropped to 424 and later dropped to around 430. Seymour, Philip, 2001. How quickly you learn to read depends on your mother tongue. New Scientist, 8 September. ('Despite being the world's lingua franca, English is the most difficult European language in which to learn to read. Children learning other languages master the basic elements of literacy within a year, but British kids take two-and-a-half years to reach the same point. In the most extensive cross-national study ever, Philip Seymour of Dundee University and his team compared the reading abilities of children in 15 European countries. "Children do seem to find English particularly complex and problematic," says Seymour.') --Vy
Orthography by committee VS public preferences
There may be a natural assumption
to assume that our orthographic preferences are shared.
The only way to find out is to test it.
(SB)
I endorse Georg's recommendation:
Have the public choose between RITE and Hardwyk's diacritic notation
in a survey of several hundred people in several locations.
How should the results of the test be interpreted?
There is a difference between a choice made on the spot and a choice made after mulling around the consequences for a week.
In other words we should pay attention to impulse choices
but we should not necessarily be bound by them.
We are, after all, dealing with conventions and the most important thing for
a convention is to be logical and consistent relative to other conventions.
The reasoned choices [reflecting how people would vote after an extended
discussion]
would be more important but these are difficult to measure.
--Steve
Gus-
GEORG: If you're right that "(A)s ðær's bin
so meny (wel óvr 50) wrkng tugeðr in formúlátng RITE, i think ðær shüd be no
qestzn ðat if a nu sistm is tu be püt forwrd tu be úsd tudá, it shüd be
RITE..", then why don't you test RITE as against TH? I would think that
400-500 respondents would be enough to give you a good idea if what you say
is correct. Tell me what kind of testing you would like to do, e.g.
supermarket bus-stop waiting zones, continuing adult education classes,
local primary and secondary schools, local book clubs, retiree clubs and
organizations, etc., and I will be more than happy to help you to get going.
In the meantime, I think Steve may have archived most if not all of China
Court's emails to Saundspel where we summarize more that 35 years of
research involving almost 40,000 people, all of which you would be welcome
to use.
Subject: Regularizing
tradspel or degrading phonemic spelling
Gus and Georg,
Gus provides a good testimonial for
RITEspelling.
Rite begins with the tradspelling and tries to
remove irregularities.
It is similar to Cut Spelling in this respect.
The other approach is to start with a phonemic
spelling such as Longmans or Websters and simplify it, e.g., by merging
some distinctions.
I think RITE has the support of those who
worked on it but I doubt if it will receive strong public support. It
should be tested against TH notation.
The problem with such tests is that the
notation that is closest to tradspel almost always wins.
--Steve
SB:
Which end are you going to work from? Alan Beale wrote: If ðat's tru, i wiðdraw eny suport for it..
UNIFON:
3 SINGIN B3RD WOZ CONFIND IN A CAJ
WIK HUNG qTSID A WINDO AND HAD 3 WA UV SINGIN AT NIT
WEN ^L UD3R BRDZ W3R 3SLEP an all comic book
cap notation
GUS: I realy do'nt fél it's ol ðat strong ðær. RITE is much betr ðær. It denóts stres and clarifýs short vowls, wýl Inglish2 dus'nt. Ð ónly rél drawbak tu RITE is its meny rúls (in wich Inglish2 is'nt ol ðat far behínd). As ðær's bin so meny (wel óvr 50) wrkng tugeðr in formúlátng RITE, i think ðær shüd be no qestzn ðat if a nu sistm is tu be püt forwrd tu be úsd tudá, it shüd be RITE.. Gus Logographies -
meaning signs instead of sound signs The Chinese adopted a system for writing their language (Mandarin) using our alphabet in 1958. It is called Pinyin meaning "write sound". It uses either 1 or 2 letters from our alphabet to make each sound in their language. Korean Hangol
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saundspel/files/GP-tables/48saxon-fonograms.gif
http://www.boostforreaders.com/spellinglists.html Reading Research bibliography mapIPA download Georgia Ref was on Unifon. Search on Ancient Scripts www.ancientscripts.com BOOKS on phonemic spelling, representation of English speech, and more 1 Orthography corrected and made an accurate guide to pronunciation : by
means of a new alphabet, adapted to the English language. / Boyle, Samuel.A new
alphabet for the English language enabling each word to be spelled as it is
pronounced and pronounced as it is 2 Dissertations on the English language; with notes, historical and critical.
/ Webster, Noah, 1758-1843 / Boston / 1951, 1973 420 W395D 5 Parts of speech; essays on English. / Matthews, Brander, 1852-1929 / New
York / 1901 814 M432P PCL Stacks 7 Mark Twain on simplified spelling : a speech at the annual dinner of the Associated Press, held in New York, September 19, 1906 : revis / Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 / New York / 1906 PE 1150 C544 8 The Arabic writing system and the sociolinguistics of orthographic reform. / Mahmoud, Youssef. / 1980(1979) PJ 6321 M33 1980 PCL Stacks 9. A solution of the alphabetic problem. / Pitman, Benn, 1822-1910 /
(Cincinnati, Ohio? / 1908 421.1 P683S PCL Stacks 13 Alphabets for English. / Haas, W. (William) / (Manchester, Eng.) / 1969 14 The phonetic structure of English words. / Kruisinga, E. (Etsko), 1875-1944 / Bern / 1943 820.6 B471 V.2 PCL Stacks 15 Written dialects n spelling reforms : history n alternatives. / Ives, Kenneth H. / Chicago, IL / 1979 PE 1148 I94 PCL Stacks 17 Phonetic transcriptions of English prose. / Jones, Daniel, 1881-1967. / Oxford / 1907 414 J713P2 PCL Stacks 18 Problems of spelling reform. / Craigie, Sir William Alexander, 1867- /
(Oxford) / 1944 19 Phonetic transcriptions from "American Speech." / New York / 1936 20 The phonetic structure of modern Israeli Hebrew ; and, Some differences in first and second language learning strategies. / Bergum, Patricia Ellen. / 1982 REPORT 1982 B4545 Public Affairs Library 21 The phonetic structure of Somali. / Armstrong, Lilias Eveline, d. 1937. / (Farnborough, Hants. / 1964 493.51 AR57P 1964 PCL Stacks 22 The phonetic system of ancient Japanese. / Yoshitake, Saburo / London / 1934 495.615 Y83P PCL Stacks --------
LINKS
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saundspel/files/GP-tables/14vowels Converters |
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