Freeman and Freeman Ch.5 (English Orthography)- Spelling-Cristal

I read some really interesting information in  chapter 5 of Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics and Grammar by David E. Freeman and Yvonne S. Freeman. 
I thought the information about the history of English spelling was really useful. Even though most English Language Learners, or even native English speakers, can sometimes feel like there are no spelling rules or there are too many exceptions to the rules, there is reason behind all the madness. 
According to the authors, the three "forces that shape English spelling" are phonetic, semantic and/or etymological. 
Phonetic forces demand that words be spelled the way they sound, for example 'sit'. 
While semantic forces spell words alike that share the same meaning, for example 'hymn' and 'hymnal'. The book also calls this analogy. 
Lastly, etymological forces demand spelling to reflect the origins of the word, 'one' (Old English) and 'kangaroo' (Australian). These spellings are kept constant across time and languages, and reflect how the words were pronounced at some point in time. 
The book explains that some words that sound the same are spelled differently to distinguish meaning, for example 'flour' and 'flower'. This way the reader can understand meaning without having to stop and consider context to understand the usage of the word or the meaning of the text.
The book goes on to suggest that when teachers directly explain and teach their students spelling, they will become better spellers. This can be done through participating in activities like linguistic investigations. The teacher can then help the students bring all their findings together into categories and practice with real life examples they use in their writing and speaking. 

I think this is really useful information for teachers and students. If the teacher knows the rules for spelling and how they apply, they can more effectively explain why words are spelled the way they are. The teacher can then help students organize this information into schemes that allow them to easily remember and use this information throughout their lives. When students know how to correctly spell words, they can more easily focus on creating meaningful writing and discovering the meaning in the text they read, which is what we are taught to strive to have as our result. 

-Cristal

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and please leave a comment to let me know if this was useful to you in any way :)