- Wrap up the discussion by stating that some learners may not have
identified spelling as a learning goal but may need to work in this area if they
want to improve their writing. Better spelling skills result in a wider choice of words to use in compositions, increased writing speed and an easier time for the reader.
- Some of the ideas mentioned in the discussion may help to give learners
reasons for spending time on spelling, even if they don’t see its value at first.
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Activity C
Why it’s so hard
Some tutors are good spellers and they may have trouble understanding why others find it hard. This activity’s discussion will help them develop that understanding and enable them to explain to their learners some of the reasons why spelling is difficult.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE HISTORY (in brief)
The following information is taken from Joy Pollock’s book, Signposts to Spelling, and from articles on the history of English and English orthography on the Answers.com website.
An overview
- Over 350 million people speak English. It is truly an international language as it is often spoken in international business and politics.
- English is a branch of Germanic, which is part of the Indo-European language family.
- English has evolved. Modern speakers would have a lot of trouble understanding the first speakers. It continues to assimilate words from many languages and may have the largest vocabulary in the world.
- There are three main periods in the history of English:
- Old English AD 450 – 1100
- Middle English AD 1100 – 1500
- Modern English AD 1500 – today
Important dates (and comings and goings)
- English still has some words from the Celts. The invasions that followed the time of Celtic domination of what is now England formed the English language.
- The Romans invaded England in AD 43 and stayed for 400 years. (They left their villas but the word became village.)
- Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes invaded in AD 450 from the area that is now Germany/Denmark. (It must have been a busy time, for they gave us the word busy.)
- The Vikings invaded in AD 800 from Norway and Denmark. (They came with their knives and the word stayed. They really did pronounce the k.)
- The Normans invaded in AD 1066. They were descended from Vikings who settled in France. (The word hour comes from them and we pronounce it in a French fashion. Fashion is also a French word.)
- Great Vowel Shift – major changes in the way we pronounce vowels took place as the language modernized from AD 1400 to 1600.
- When the printing press was invented in AD 1477, it marked the start of standardized spelling.
- Modern dialects emerged from the 1600s onward, as English speakers spread across the world. As they spread, they gathered more words, such as pyjamas from Urdu, one of the languages of India.