Meeting the Challenges to Teaching the Spelling System of English: Voices from the Field in Kuwait

Abstract

This is a study of the spelling system of English in terms of the defects about orthography and the system’s pedagogical limitations. The paper reports on the inherent problems in English orthography and reform attempts. In line with the discussion, impediments to the teaching of TO and challenges to the teaching of spelling have been reviewed from the literature. Based on a typology of the developmental stages of spelling, the researcher outlines some of the effective pedagogical strategies in teaching spelling. In this paper, too, a survey on teaching spelling was done and the findings have been outlined indicating that the English spelling system is a complex and sophisticated one that has far more to it than the correspondence of letters and sounds and that teachers and students may be helped if they understand some of the systematic elements in English spelling and the developmental phases of spelling learning for nonnatives. Also revealed is that teaching spelling can contribute as much to the students’ ability to use English as the teaching of pronunciation at a far less cost in time.