| Abstract | [Introduction]
The study of spelling is oddly neglected by researchers in the cognitive sciences who devote themselves to reading. Experimentation and theories concerning printed word recognition continue to proliferate. Spelling, by contrast, has received short shrift, at least until fairly recently. It is apparent that in our preoccupation with reading, we have tended to downgrade spelling, passing it by as though it were a low-level skill learned chiefly by rote. However, a look beneath the surface at children’s spellings quickly convinces one that the common assumption is false. The ability to spell is an achievement no less deserving of well-directed study than the ability to read. Yet spelling and reading are not quite opposite sides of a coin. Though each is party to a common code, the two skills are not not identical. In view of this, it is important to discover how development of the ability to spell words is phased with development of skill in reading them, and to discover how each activity may influence the other. Thus, this chapter is concerned with the relationship between reading and writing.
It is appropriate to begin by asking what information an alphabetic orthography provides for a writer and reader, and to briefly review the possible reasons why beginners often find it difficult to understand the principle of alphabetic writing and to grasp how spellings represent linguistic structure. In this connection, would an orthography test suited for learning to spell differ from an orthography best suited for learning to read? The second section discusses how spelling and reading are interleaved in a child newly introduced to the orthography of English. Here, one central question is precedence: Does the ability to read words precede the ability to spell them, or, alternatively, might some children be ready to apply the alphabetic principle in writing before they can do so in reading? A related question is strategy. Do children sometimes approach the two tasks in very different ways? Finally, the last section discusses how analysis of children’s spellings may illuminate aspects of orthographic learning that are not readily accessible in the study of reading. |
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