[senco-forum] Re: How many rules?

other word can you find the o representing the /w/ sound. ch is never

Thanks for all the information, Philip.  I would agree that the story of
the English language is fascinating, but would issue a lighthearted word
of warning when about to read anything by David Crystal: he presents
everything in such an east to read and compelling way, that it is dificult
to tear oneself away and get on with necessary tasks!

Regards

Jean

S Wales

 Oiech spells week, not really, the /w/ in one, once is a one off.  In no
> other word can you find the o representing the /w/ sound.  ch is never
> hard
> /k/ at the end of a word, it needs an e or other letters to follow it eg
> Michael and usually indicates a Greek derivation,  ie for /ee/ sure and
> there are many examples.  Its all a bit like the trick the whole language
> freaks used to pull on ghoti =  fish.  gh only says   /f/ at the end of a
> word never at the beginning, o - /i/ as in women is a one off  and ti will
> never say /sh/ at the end of a word but only if it is the last but one
> letter pair.  It is  left over from the Norman French.   Our language is
> logically ordered.  Take a look at Diane McGuiness' work and then look at
> Crystal and Coulmas.  Good sources of information on how it all works.  It
> is a fascinating story.
>
> Taking into account the historical roots, changes of pronunciation (in the
> olden days we used to pronounce the /k/ in knock, knuckle but changed the
> pronuncation and now do not say the /k/ but retained the spelling) and
> propensity to absorb words from other languages eg. ketchup  = catsup =
> catsiup  cantonese for fish sauce,  our spelling system is very orderly
> but
> it does need to be learned.   We have the biggest number of so called
> dyslexics mainly because reading has been badly taught for at least the
> last
> 100 years.   It si all down to some research in the late 1800s that showed
> that we could recognize words as fast as we could single letters and
> therefore the paying attention to the letter content was uneccessary
> (Cattell)  and then we had look say, basal reading schemes, real books,
> whole language, readiing recovery and all the rest of the badly thought
> out
> approaches all from research that  was ecologically invalid and was
> recognized as such almost immediately, but it still went on to determine
> reading curricula.  Bandwagons!   The problem with education is that it
> seems to prefer research that is qualitative or based on questionnaires,
> observation etc. and not on empirical causal enquiry.  And before everyone
> starts screaming about reading recovery take a look at Center et al and
> Shanahan & Barr.  If you want more references on this I can supply them.
> That the situation is not changing can be found in the fact that despite
> the
> Rose Report Reading Recovery is going to be re introduced to 10 LEAs.
> The
> empirical research says clearly that the effects do not last so why is
> more
> taxpayer's money being spent on it?
>
> Philip EP
>
> Center, Y., Wheldall, K. & McNaught, M. (1995) "An Evaluation of Reading
> recovery". Reading Research Quarterly, 30, p. 240-263.
>
>
>
> Coulmas. Florian (1989). "The Writing Systems of the World",  Basil
> Blackwell Ltd. Oxford, England  1989.
>
> Crystal, D. (1987) " the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language".
> Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
>
>
>
> McGuiness, D. (1997) "Why Our Children Can't Read: and what we can do
> about
> it". New York. The Free Press.
>
>
>
> Shanahan, T. & Barr, R. (1995) "Reading recovery: An independent
> evaluation
> of the effects of an early instructional intervention for at risk
> learners".
> Reading Research Quarterly, 30,  p. 958-996.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Amanda" <amandavh at btinternet.com>
> To: "Phil" <pmacken1 at bigpond.net.au>; <senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:36 AM
> Subject: RE: [senco-forum] Re: How many rules?
>
>
>> And oiech spells 'week'.
>>  o as in one
>>  ie as in field
>>  ch as in Christmas
>>  Amanda
>>  Secondary SENCO
>>  Cornwall
>>
>> Phil <pmacken1 at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>>
>> Do you know that
>>
>> Ghoti spells 'fish"
>>
>> Gh as in enough (gh =f),
>> 'o' as in women (this comes from Australia and they say 'wimen")
>> 'ti' as in station
>>
>> Good example of the difficulty of learning rules/sound patterns.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> How many rules do u have to get that 80%?
>> Even with all those rules, u are saying that
>> 1 word in every 5 is irregular,
>> often the high frequency words.
>>
>> And the very people who need the rules the most
>> are the ones with memory difficulties.
>>
>> In 1975 I discovered Alpha to Omega
>> and was amazed by all the 'rules'.
>> I did not know they existed,
>> let alone that anyone needed to learn them.
>>
>> Jean
>> -----------------------------------------
>> 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
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Amanda
>> Secondary SENCO
>> Cornwall
>>
>>
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