[senco-forum] Re: senco-forum Spelling reform

"All children in the USSR are given an ABC book and start to learn
from it the day school begins. They learn at first about a letter a
day and what it stands for, and gradually proceed to syllables and
words.

"By December 15 of their first year all Russian children are through
with their ABC books and start reading simple stories and poems.
There is no further instruction in reading as such after the end of
first grade. [Rudolph Flesch, "Why Johnny Still Can't Read" (New
York: Harper Colophon Books, 1981), pp. 167-168.]

1 Dec 2005. Independent review of the teaching of early reading interim report. 
Jim Rose. Department for Education and Skills: The Standards Site. "27. It is 
generally accepted that English is harder to learn than many other languages, 
because the relationship between sounds and letters is more complex than in 
languages such as Finnish, Greek or German."
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/rosereview/

28-29 Sep 2005. OECD-CERI Learning sciences and brain research.
Conclusion includes: "Countries with deep orthographies might possibly begin to 
consider the political and societal feasibility of implementing orthographic 
reforms."
www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/39/35562310.pdf

2001 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. (PIRLS)
When published in 2003, one comment was:
"The gap between the highest and lowest attaining children tended to be wider in 
English-speaking countries such as England and New Zealand, than in other 
nations. Researchers said one factor might be the irregular nature of English" 
(TES April 11).

Richard Feynman: "If the professors of English will complain to me that the 
students who come to the universities, after all those years of study, still 
cannot spell friend, I say to them that something's the matter with the way you 
spell friend."

OK, there is no agreement on what reforms there should be,
and no mechanism for implementing them, as there is for
many other languages, but I just wish it could happen
for the sake of dyslexics and other reading/spelling disabled.

Jean
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Jean Hutchins, SE Surrey DA.
RSA Dip SpLD, AMBDA, retired.
E-mail: jeanhutchins1 at ntlworld.com
British Dyslexia Association Web: www.bdadyslexia.org.uk
Also into spelling reform: www.simplifiedspelling.org
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