Improving Written Language Skills Through Multiple-Linguistic Spelling Instruction

Spelling and word-level reading are written language skills that draw upon an individual's repertoire of linguistic knowledge, including phonological awareness; knowledge of orthography, vocabulary, morphological and semantic relationships; and mental orthographic images (Apel & Masterson, 2001; Apel, Masterson, & Niessen, 2004). Although spelling (encoding) and word-level reading (decoding) draw upon these areas of linguistic knowledge in different ways, each type of linguistic knowledge contributes to spelling and reading success (Treiman & Bourassa, 2000). A collective body of current research demonstrates the importance of integrating multiple linguistic processes within spelling instruction. In comparison to traditional spelling instruction and traditional reading instruction, multiple-linguistic spelling instruction has been shown to be more effective for improving student's spelling and reading performance (Apel, Masterson, & Hart, 2004; Kelman & Apel, 2004; Roberts & Meiring, 2006).

The Language of Reading & Spelling

For both spelling and reading, individuals use multiple processes. They rely upon phonological awareness, and rely upon their knowledge of orthography, vocabulary, morphological and semantic relationships, and mental orthographic images.

Phonological Awareness

The phonological awareness skills of segmenting, sequencing, discriminating, and identifying phonemes all play a role during the encoding process. Individuals use phonological segmentation skills when spelling by breaking down words into smaller units, such as syllables and phonemes, then linking these smaller units to their written forms. They use sound sequencing skills to map the letters to sounds in the correct order; and they use phoneme discrimination and identification skills to perceive differences between speech sounds (e.g., between the short vowel e and i sounds). They also use phonological awareness to recognize that a difference in sound signals a difference in meaning (e.g., pet versus pit).

The decoding process draws upon the phonological awareness skills of identifying, sequencing, and blending phonemes. To read an unfamiliar word, the reader converts the individual letters and letter patterns into their corresponding phonemes, holds the sequence of individual sounds in phonological working memory for the length of time it takes to sound out the complete word, and then blends those individual sounds into a complete word. As students gain repeated exposure to the orthographic printed word form and the corresponding phonological structure of words through sounding out and blending all the phonemes in the words, they can more easily read familiar and unfamiliar words and increase reading fluency. Reading comprehension improves as well because rapid and accurate decoding allows individuals to decrease their focus on the decoding process and thus increase their attention on the meaning of what they read.

Orthographic Knowledge

Individuals also draw upon their orthographic knowledge during the encoding and decoding processes. When spelling, individuals rely upon their knowledge of sound-letter relationships and knowledge of letter patterns and conventional spelling rules to convert spoken language to written form. This orthographic knowledge includes recognizing letter-sound relationships (e.g., the / t∫ /sound can be represented by the letters ch, tch, t, ti, c); knowing which letter patterns are acceptable (e.g., the / t∫ /sound is almost always spelled with the letters ch at the beginning of a word; at the end of a word the / t∫ / sound is always spelled with the letters ch after a long vowel sound); and understanding sound, syllable, and word position constraints on spelling patterns (e.g., the
/ t∫ /sound at the beginning of a word is never spelled with the letters tch).