Spelling using "spelling pronunciation"

[Xahm]

Is this a good way to teach?

As a kid, I found it easier to learn my spelling lists if I remembered an exaggerated "spelling pronunciation," for difficult words. For example, people was "pee-oh-pluh." This wasn't something I was taught to do, just a trick I discovered to help myself. Later when teaching English in Russia, my students had fantastic spelling and told me this is what their teachers taught them to do when learning English vocabulary. (Russian is an extremely phonetic language. Extremely).

I haven't heard of this being taught as a technique here. Is that because I haven't been listening in the right places? Or because there'd be a negative side effect I haven't thought of? As a primary method, teaching through sounding out and rules of phonics and word origin seems best, but for those "tricky words" that don't seem to stick, is this a viable method?

[EKS]

I think this can help some kids, but for others, it's just another thing to remember and remembering is difficult.

[8filltheheart]

It might help for some words. I remember my sister always joking about "pee"neumonia. 

I don't see how it would be helpful in general though. Is it fruit or froot? English spelling does end up having to be memorized for words beyond simple phonetic spelling.

[Xahm]

54 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

It might help for some words. I remember my sister always joking about "pee"neumonia. 

I don't see how it would be helpful in general though. Is it fruit or froot? English spelling does end up having to be memorized for words beyond simple phonetic spelling.

When my Russian students learned a word like "fruit," they'd make a flashcard that had the word's pronunciation transliterated into Cyrillic as well as a "spelling pronunciation," something like "fruh-it" that they'd also learn. It was interesting to me because I only ever had two students above age eight who weren't good spellers in English. One was constantly drunk and only attended because he was forced to by his parents. The other was very smart but would likely have been diagnosed with dysgraphia and maybe more in America. The vast majority of my students were extremely smart and highly motivated, though, with parents willing and able to pay for special English lessons with a foreigner, so I don't know how well the method works in a more general population, let alone with native speakers of English. 

Edited September 21, 2018 by xahm
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[Petrichor]

It has helped me, for some words. I think it's probably best to teach the phonics rules, and even etymology first, and only introduce things like that for the really tricky words.

 

I do remember being taught (in an American classroom) things like "wed nes day" i.e. the day you wed(marry) Ness. and fri-ends "fry the ends of your friends"

I do wish I had been taught something for "said" that one tripped me up for at least a decade! Probably wouldn't have if we had been taught phonics properly though. Our school taught spelling as sight words until grade 2, then threw some sloppy excuse for phonics instruction at us.

[MerryAtHope]

I think good spellers use a variety of techniques (because English can be challenging!). This is definitely one I used as a kid (I remember being taught "Wed-nes-day" for example, and teachers who emphasized proper pronunciation for "because" and "aunt," and also the /hw/ sound for wh words--but I used it for other words too. Fry-end for friend comes to mind, LOL!) And, it's one I taught my kids too. There definitely are curricula that employ The "Pronounce for Spelling" Technique as one of the strategies. Like anything, I think it can be over-used--but when used judiciously, it's a great strategy. 

[sweet2ndchance]

I still think "pee oh pull" and "Wed nes day" when I'm writing. One I think I made up myself around 4th grade or so was "re sour ce". I would just remember the word "sour" was in the middle of resource and I could also spell "source" correctly then as well. I was also taught "A Rat In Tom's Hat Might Eat The Ice Cream" to spell arithmetic.

I use little tricks like this and find them helpful especially for words that don't sound out easily or have several possibilities for the spelling of a sound and there is no rule that dictates which letter combination to use in that situation. Dh thinks if you can memorize the trick, why not just memorize the word instead and doesn't see the point in memorizing the additional information. So I think it just really depends on the person, some people find them helpful, others won't.

[Petrichor]

3 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

I still think "pee oh pull" and "Wed nes day" when I'm writing. One I think I made up myself around 4th grade or so was "re sour ce". I would just remember the word "sour" was in the middle of resource and I could also spell "source" correctly then as well. I was also taught "A Rat In Tom's Hat Might Eat The Ice Cream" to spell arithmetic.

I use little tricks like this and find them helpful especially for words that don't sound out easily or have several possibilities for the spelling of a sound and there is no rule that dictates which letter combination to use in that situation. Dh thinks if you can memorize the trick, why not just memorize the word instead and doesn't see the point in memorizing the additional information. So I think it just really depends on the person, some people find them helpful, others won't.

 

Responding to your DH: If you can memorize the word, no need to memorize the trick. But for some people, letters get lost and jumbled in their head (even if they don't have dyslexia) and the "trick" is more memorable.

 

I did just recall that in the WRTR (Spalding method) they do sometimes give instruction to give the word as it is spelled (and to pronounce it the right way when reading). I can't think of any example right now though. It's more than just when a letter is doubled though (eg. pronouncing letter as "let ter") Any time there is a phonetic reason for the spelling it will say "use the phonogram that says ch, sh, k"

I imagine learning tricks for every word could slow you down though. Imagine thinking "li-guht" not only every time you write the word "light," but also "bri-guht" for "bright," and night, right, blight, fright, etc.