OnDifficultiesandErrorsinEnglishSpelling

1、OnDifficultiesandErrorsinEnglishSpelling田雪静+高珊【Abstract】Thispaperprimarilydemonstratesspellingdifficultiesforbothforeignlearnersandnativespeakers.Somereasons，explanationsandsolutionswillbeillustratedaccordingly.Meanwhile，thispaperalsocomparesthespellingerrorsmadebynativespeakersandforeignlearners.【K

2、eywords】Englishspelling；foreignlearners；Englishspeaking；writingwords；nativespeaker；spellingerrors1.IntroductionSpellingisasignificantbarrierfortheEnglishspeakingstudents，anditisalsoanimportantfactorinthewaypeoplepresentthemselves.V.JCook，1997Sometendtoclaimthatspellingisdifficultfornativelearners，le

3、talonefornonnativespeakers，butactuallywewouldnotconsideritrightallthetime.PrinceCharlesoncesaidAlltheletterssentfrommyofficeneedstobecorrectedonmyown，whichseemsquiteinterestingamongnativeusers.Basicreasonswillbelistedbelowspecifically.2.ReasonsofincorrectwordsAsobservingintheprocessofEnglishlearning

4、，Ihavenoticedthatforeignlearnersacquirethespellingofthewordssimultaneouslywhentheylearntospeakthatlanguage.Bycontrast，nativestudentsspeakallwordslongbeforetheywritethemdownwhentheywereveryyoung.Whenstartingtowritesomewords，theyinclinetoexploittheguessphonetically，whichisafastwaytorecitelongwords.Ont

5、heotherside，nativespeakersoccasionallyconfusedbytheapplicationofphoneticscript.Forinstance，whenaskedtowriteDed，theysometimesshouldmisusedead.Thus，incaseofthissituation，Istronglyrecommendthatlearnersshouldrefertodictionaryforhelpforavoidingthismistakeoncetheyareabletolookupthewords.2.1Accordingtoasur

6、veylaunchedbylinguists，twelve-year-oldBritishchildrenhaveabettercommandofroughlythreethousandwrittenwords，whichequalstoamiddleschoolstudentsvocabularyvolumeinChina.Twothousandamongthosearewordswithoutsuffixorprefix.Approximatelytwohundredmightbewronglyspelled.Asamatteroffact，Englishchildrenhaveafarl

7、argerspectrumofpotentialerrorsduetothebiggervocabulary.Behout1985alsosuggestedthatEnglishspeakingstudentsbetweennineandelevenhadahighererrorsratethannon-nativeadults.2.2Inaccuratespellingownsitsderivationinthecasualfreedomofchildhood.Theywrotethewordbymistakeandthenthedimimpressionlastedsincethen.Ho

8、wever，thematureanddiligentnativespeakersaremorelikelytopreventthishappening.endprint3.Typesofmis-spellingTheapproachemployedhereistoanalyzethespellingmistakesbyvarioustypesofusersofEnglish3.1LettererrorsThemajortypeofmistakesforChineseEnglishlearnersittodistinguishtheletterss，candz.Quiteoftensomewor

9、dssuchasprise，price，orprizemistakenlyshowupinthecomposition.Learning，includinglearningasecondoraforeignlanguage，isinfluencedbystudentspriorknowledge.Brown，2000LetustakecertainareasinChinalikeSouthernpartsasanexample，alargenumberofpeoplemightnottellthesoundsbetweenLandRbecauseoftheirmothertonguediale

10、cts.InspokenEnglish，forexample，thefirstletterofwordroadshouldhavebeenpronouncedasR，wherastheymakethesoundlikeLinsteadofRsound，whichcouldbepartofreasonstheymakemis-spellinginwriting.3.2VowelerrorsThemostgeneralmistakesappeartoarisefromconfusionofsimilarvowels.Someothervowelmistakescomefromphoneticino

11、rigin，suchas，thefollowingwords：listforleast，liveforleave，still/forsteal，tafffortough3.3OmissionofoneletterInseveralcases，theletterneglectedwasanunsoundconsonant.Themajorityofthesephenomenaseemstobetheresultofcarelessness.Examplearelistedasfollowing：wether，suprise，govement，prononce3.4Additionofonelet

12、terThishappensquiteofteninhandwriting，whichisregardedascarefulnessaswell，namelysomefollowingletterssharpe，sharke，pounctuation3.5SinglewordswrittenastwowordsTheerrorsarespecificallygeneralwithcompoundpronouns，tobeillustrated，anybody/anybody；everybody/everybody；somebody/somebody，andsoon.3.6Twowordswri

13、ttenasonewordThesewordsshowupoccasionallywithcombinedwords，namely，inorderforinorder；infrontforinfront；inspiteforinspite.3.7CountableanduncountableAsclaimedbyJia2020，oneareawherlanguagetransferisparticularlypopularamongChineselearnersintheformationofEnglishplurals.Somewritersmisusethecountablewordsfo

14、runcountableones.Forexample，theputaredundantletter“sattheendofmassnounwords，say，sheepsforsheep；fishesforfish.Anumberofwordschangecompletelyintonewwordsforpluralforms，suchas，miceformouse，feetforfoot.3.8CarelessInthiscategory，Iwillpointoutsomecarelesserrors，forexample，theforthey；theyforthem；hisforhim；

15、ourforus，andextra.Actuallythewriterisperfectlyawareoftherightwordsbutdonotchecktheirworkcarefullyafterfinishing.Therefore，theeffectivemethodofpreventingthismistakeistoreviseanddoublecheckonceagain.endprint4.PrinciplesandsolutionsEvenso，weconfrontdifficultieswhenproposetoconsiderwhatcouldbedoneaboutt

16、hem.Spellingisavisiblememory.Learnersrecitethespellingofawordwithcommonshape.Thewordslookrightiftheyarespelledcorrect.Thatsthereasonwordsmisprintingmightbehardtodetect.Asforthis，weconcludetwomainprinciples.Thefirstoneisthatexcellentspellingrequiresconsistenthandwriting.Itsdifficultforpeoplewhooncein

17、awhilewritecorrectly，butsometimesfalsely.Thesecondprincipleisgettingridofincorrectimpressionatallcosts.onceyoudoubtthewordyouarewritingdotakeitdownfirstandthentheotherlatertocomparethosetwoinordertoseewhichonelooksgood.Neverletyourselfseeanincorrectform，ifyouarenotsure，lookitupinadictionary.Therefor

18、e，Englishlearnersshouldtrainthemselvestowritearightwordtothebestofourabilities.Inaddition，alwayskeepadictionaryathandwhilereading，studyingorwriting.Bydoingso，therewouldbeanyexcuseofmis-spelling.Theonlyreasonofspellingwronglyistotallyaboutcarelessnessandlaziness.Greatspellingissimilartogreatgardening

19、.Itisthematterofputtingfineplantsandexpellingtheweeds.Everyonehashisownshortcomings.Notonlyauthorbutalsodoctorswillmis-spellthewordswhilewritingahugeamountofsentences，paragraphsoressays.Thereby，whenspottinganincorrectspelling，youshouldcorrectitimmediatelyjustlikeweedingoutuselessgrasses.Placingtheri

20、ghtwordinanotebookisalsothebestwaytodevelopgoodhabitoflanguagelearning.SoinChineseprimaryschool，teachersforcepupilstowriteoutthecorrectwordstenortwentytimesformemoryconsolidation.Generallyspeaking，foreignEnglishlearnersproblemswitheverysinglewordcanbebestsolvedbyusingthesystemforknowledgeofsinglewor

21、dformtomakestudentsfocusingonthevisualformatsofasmallnumberofwordsthatarepredictableinanacademiccontext.5.DiscussionsEffectivespellingiscrucialforlearningEnglishasasecondlanguageowingtoitssocialandacademicimpact，anditfornootherreasons.Neverthelesstheamountoffocusgiventoitinresearchisminimal.Inthefav

22、oriteview，accuratespellingisasignofeducation；aspellingerrorisasolecismthatbetrayscarelessness.Spellingthusisanimportantfactorinwhichwaypeoplepresentthemselves，andthatiswhypoliticalwriterswouldnotuseanythingbutstandardspelling.EditorsofacademicarticlespersistineitherBritishorAmericanspellingeventhoug

23、htheyshouldfinditunthinkabletodictatethosespeakersatconferenceshoulddeliverspeechwithaBritishoranAmericanaccent.Spellingfeaturesdominateinthecurriculuminanycountriesthroughouttheworld，whileexaminationsareinstructedtoreducemarksforpoorspellinginallsubjects.endprintWecangetbacktothebasicissueaboutthee

24、xtenttowhichforeignlearnersmakefulluseofvariousroutesforspelling.Likethenativeadultsandchildren，ahugeadvantagesofnon-nativespeakersmistakesincludesoundandlettercorrespondence.Therefore，wecanspotproblemswithsound/lettercorrespondenceintheuseofhomophonessuchas，discreetdiscreat，fairsfares，andofnear-hom

25、ophonessuchas，fearfairandbreakbrick.Thosesound-relatederrorsmightbemoreextensivesincethepronunciationofnon-nativeusersofEnglishmaydifferfromnativespeakersinmagnificentways.Likeyoungnativelearnersusuallyanalyzethepronunciationofwordsinthedifferentwayfromadultcounterparts.Moremeticulousevaluationofthe

26、contributionmadebythespeakerphonologicalsystemrequiresconsideringthespellingerrors.6.ConclusionsTherewontbeanytwolearnersclassifiedtheachievementinextremelythesamewayandtosomeextentanumberoferrorscouldfallintodifferentcategories.Wyatt，2020NeverthelessIwishthesystemIhaveexploitedwouldprovemostlyusefu

27、l.Themistakesmadebypeoplecanbeforeseeable，ifnot，Isuggesttheirrelativelylowfrequency.Admittedlythenumberoftimesspecificerrorshaveoccurredthatisrelevant.Theconclusionthereforeisthatnon-nativewritersaresurprisinglyhavinabettercommandofEnglishspellingcomparedwithnativeyoungerwriters.Doubtlessthisisthetipoficeberg，showingonlythosewhohavemadeitsuccessfullythroughdifficultearlystagesan