Friday 5 December 2014

How important is spelling?



If there's one thing that makes a language teacher scream in exasperation and apply lots of red pen to children's work, it's poor spelling.  There is a big emphasis on correct spelling (and punctuation and grammar - SPaG) elsewhere in the curriculum, so we should expect careful spelling in languages too.

However, if we look at the Making and Marking Progress document for Key Stage 2, we read the following:

"Spelling may not always be completely accurate but your meaning will be clear."

So just how important is spelling?

Here are the results of a #mfltwitterati crowd source about common spelling mistakes:

FRENCH:
nerf
neuf
beucoup / beacoup
beaucoup
familie
famille
blue
bleu
souer
soeur
jamie
j’aime
interestant
intéressant
compains
copains
chevaux
cheveux
fréré
frère
collage
collège
je mapple / jem’appele etc
je m’appelle
trios
trois
mecredi
mercredi
jabeet
j’habite
vancances
vacances


SPANISH:
abburido
aburrido
me enchanta
me encanta
anos
años
viente
veinte
mardre
madre


GERMAN
Ich speile
Ich spiele
Wochende
Wochenende
Fruende
Freunde

Some questions:
  • Are there more French examples because French is harder to spell than Spanish and German?
  • What do the exemplified errors tell us about what the students find difficult about the languages?
  • How much is English to blame?
  • How much are spell checkers responsible for?  (see above image!)
I would be interested to hear your thoughts, and of course any other cracking examples.

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