Learning to Spell Words

Learning to spell depends on the skill and motivation of the individual and on the complexity of the writing system itself. In this chapter, the authors consider the world's major writing systems and the skills needed to spell successfully in each type of system. Focusing on English and alphabetic systems, they describe how spelling ability typically develops and critically appraise the theories that have been put forward to explain this process. Dual-route models move the study of spelling development beyond mere description and aim to account for the moment-by-moment process of producing spellings for words. However, they focus so strongly on phonological patterns that they neglect the role of graphotactics and morphology. Moving beyond prephonological writing in alphabetical spelling systems requires grasping the idea that the letters in written words represent the sounds of their spoken forms.