8 ms·

Wen u sa u wont too improov thee Englush orthografee doo u meen speling foneticulee? Beecuz ay think that wood bee silee. Instead, why not teach the English la

Wen u sa u wont too improov thee Englush orthografee doo u meen speling foneticulee? Beecuz ay think that wood bee silee. Instead, why not teach the English language properly to students? You know, where the words came from, what changes they suffered through the years... That's how I learned it as a non-native speaker and I can tell you I had a blast doing it, not to mention that now I literally can't forget how most words are spelled (I remember vaguely the derivation from Latin/Greek/Middle English/Anglo Saxon). In other words, folks everywhere through the times were able to pick up this beautiful language, but all of a sudden we are having problems teaching it to kids these days? Is it the fault of the language, or the educators?

Armisael16 11y ago
Do you really think preschoolers/kindergartners are going to get anything out of that? I certainly wouldn't've cared.
- planfaster 11y ago
  I don't believe that kids should be in school before 7 or 8 years of age.
panglott 11y ago
Mostly I think alternate spellings should be tolerated, and there should be fewer irregularities. I like a lot of Masha Bell's suggestions to simply make English spelling less irregular. http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/luv-u-giv.html http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/luv-u-giv.html Keep a silent <e> at the end of a word if it makes a vowel "say its name", but drop it otherwise. Then we could make a spelling distinction between a political moderat who wants to moderate political discourse, for example. Take off the inkhorn <p> at the beginning of "ptarmigan", spell philosophy with an <f> at the beginning like they do in most of the Romance languages. The only reason night has a <gh> in the middle is because a thousand years ago it was pronounced with a velar fricative in the middle that standard English hasn't used for centuries. Why not just rite nite rite? Etymology and historical sound change is fascinating, but it's an irregularity that makes literacy harder for grade schoolers. The spelling is not the language. And is it really the case that it's more important to spend classroom time teaching children centuries-obsolete spellings rather than deep reading skills or math?

Armisael16 11y ago

Do you really think preschoolers/kindergartners are going to get anything out of that? I certainly wouldn't've cared.

planfaster 11y ago
I don't believe that kids should be in school before 7 or 8 years of age.

panglott 11y ago

Mostly I think alternate spellings should be tolerated, and there should be fewer irregularities. I like a lot of Masha Bell's suggestions to simply make English spelling less irregular. http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/luv-u-giv.html http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/luv-u-giv.html Keep a silent <e> at the end of a word if it makes a vowel "say its name", but drop it otherwise. Then we could make a spelling distinction between a political moderat who wants to moderate political discourse, for example. Take off the inkhorn <p> at the beginning of "ptarmigan", spell philosophy with an <f> at the beginning like they do in most of the Romance languages. The only reason night has a <gh> in the middle is because a thousand years ago it was pronounced with a velar fricative in the middle that standard English hasn't used for centuries. Why not just rite nite rite? Etymology and historical sound change is fascinating, but it's an irregularity that makes literacy harder for grade schoolers. The spelling is not the language. And is it really the case that it's more important to spend classroom time teaching children centuries-obsolete spellings rather than deep reading skills or math?