Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Statistics on Spelling in English

An article in the winter 2008 - 2009 issue of American Educator contains some very interesting statistics regarding spelling in English.

50% of English words have spelling that is predictable based on sound-letter correspondences.

34% of English words have spelling that is predictable, except for one sound, based on sound-letter correspondences.

When spelling is taught with a linguistic approach that includes word origin and history (etymology), syllable patterns and meaningful parts of words(morphemes), and letter patterns, the spelling of only 4% of English words is truly irregular.

No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...