Background information

English is morphophonemic.

English is morphophonemic, unlike the straightforward orthographies of some languages (i.e., Italian, Spanish), which form words through more direct phoneme/grapheme correspondences. This means English incorporates both morphological and phonemic information. Therefore, studying English orthography requires understanding grapheme/phoneme correspondence and morphology. Etymology also influences spelling as English, which is complex and comprises multiple languages, including Anglo-Saxon (Old English), French, Latin, and Greek.

Children’s curiosity becomes very evident when teaching spelling.

Grapheme/phoneme correspondence (sound/symbol)

It is crucial for children to quickly grasp that phonemes (sounds) can be represented by one, two, or three letters.

Using the term grapheme rather than letter from kindergarten onwards helps students deeply understand this phoneme-to-grapheme connection.

A digraph is a combination of two letters that represent one sound. There are consonant digraphs such as <sh> and <ck> and vowel digraphs such as <ay> and <ow> (i.e., begins with a vowel and represents a vowel phoneme).

A trigraph is a combination of three letters that represent one sound. There are consonant trigraphs such as <tch> and vowel trigraphs such as <igh> (i.e., begins with a vowel and represents a vowel phoneme).

Morphology

Students enjoy discovering that words are composed of parts called morphemes. They are especially interested in identifying the base and understanding how affixes modify meaning.

Etymology

Studying the etymology of words fosters children's curiosity. They learn graphemes can have jobs (like connecting words to their relatives) instead of representing phonemes/sounds.

Spellamentals’ definitions - coming soon!