THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Date Due THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SPELLING. INDIVIDUAL AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN SPELLING ABILITIES AND NEEDS. THE CHARACTER AND RANGE OF THE SPELLING VOCABULARY. AND THE PRACTICAL PROBLEMS OF TEACHING SPELLING By W. A. COOK Of the University of Colorado and M. V. O'SHEA Of the University of Wisconsin CHILDa JBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT 1914 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY - PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH * CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PHINTCR8 BROOKLYN, h. *. Education Library L& TABLE OF CONTENTS/ 5 * PART I LEARNING TO SPELL CHAPTER PAGE I INTRODUCTION ........ . 1 Present-day interest in spelling Conflicting opinions and counsel The reason for differences of opinion Why pupils find spelling hard and uninteresting The purpose and scope of the present volume The spelling vocabulary. II RULES FOR SPELLING ........ 10 Present opinion and practise Material used for the test The persons tested Conscious ver- sus unconscious functioning of a rule Rule on ie-ei, final e, final y, final consonant, final ie The function of the ie-ei rule Value of rule on final e Value of rule on final y Value of rule for final consonant Value of rule for final ie Stu- dents' attitude toward rules. III SOURCES AND CAUSES OF ERRORS ..... 23 Need of determining causes of errors Preva- lence of chance errors Slips of the pen Treat- ment of lapses Is there a critical point in a word? Crucial points often not covered by rules Mispronunciation as a cause of error Analogies in spelling Obscure or elided vow- els Doubling letters Types of letters Syllabi- cation Directing attention to the crucial point in each word. IV THE LIFE HISTORY OF CERTAIN SPELLINGS . . 48 Words assigned in experiments Methods of presentation and study Methods of recitation Methods of correction Capacity for improve- ment Learning and retaining Persistence of errors An apparent exception to the rule of per-' sistence Why errors persist The life history of certain words Errors eliminated one at a time Four stages in word mastery When is a word mastered? 843G61 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE V COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXTUAL SPELLING ... 74 Material and subjects Difficulties of the plan Two methods of measuring loss by trans- fer The conventional conclusion Genuine dy- namic spelling Dispersion of attention Rela- tive automatism in spelling Automatic execution of the literal elements Oral spelling first Auto- matic control of larger units Universality of the principle Lack of transfer unavoidable Conclusion. VI METHODS OF PRESENTATION ...... 94 Variance of opinions Plan of the work Four types of presentation Effectiveness of the training Comparison of methods Processes in graphic and oral spelling Advantages of each method Showing a pupil his error. VII SPELLING EFFICIENCY AND COMPOSITION ... 104 Plan of the work The data gathered Or- ganization of ideas The spelling conscience At- tention to technique Rapidity of writing The results summarized. VIII SOME SPECIAL FACTORS IN SPELLING ... 112 Learning to read in relation to learning to spell Fear of making errors Seeing and hear- ing mistakes Can one reason out a spelling? Auditory and visual types No pure types Dom- inant type of error Syllabication as an aid Traits that make good spellers. IX POPULAR VIEWS OF SPELLING NEEDS .... 125 Present theory and practise Purpose of spell- ing Immediate versus ultimate values in spell- ing Pruning word lists Reasons for opposition to curtailment of vocabulary. X DETERMINING THE WRITTEN VOCABULARY OF TYPI- CAL AMERICANS 135 An experimental study of spelling needs Ayres* study of spelling vocabularies How to TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE find the needs of the "common people" Declin- ing importance of spelling No imminent danger of hampering the child. XI SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF DATA .... 144 Sources of data No consideration of test lists Rules of procedure The arrangement of words. XII WORD LISTS DERIVED FROM CORRESPONDENCE . . 156 The method of classifying data Words used by all the correspondents Words used by a ma- jority of the correspondents Words used by less than a majority of the correspondents Proper names in the correspondence Separate tabula- tion of foreign terms. XIII SPELLING TEXTS AND SPELLING NEEDS . . . 225 Vocabularies of spelling-books Relation of vocabularies of spellers and correspondents Limitations of any speller Individual writing vocabularies Vocabularies in family and other correspondence Sex differences in spelling vo- cabulary Relation of time economy to spelling needs The words that do the work. XIV RESUME' AND CONCLUSIONS 246 APPENDIX WORDS USED SPONTANEOUSLY BY PUPILS . 257 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 267 INDEX ...... 275 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING PART I LEARNING TO SPELL CHAPTER I IF one may judge by what otie reads in the news- papers and magazines, the subject in the schools of chief interest to the layman to-day is spelling. Prc9nt-day inter- There is evidently a wide-spread cst in spelling bdj e f that graduates of the ele- mentary schools can not spell so Well now as they did in earlier times. A number of investigators have attempted to show that this belief is not founded on fact, but the newspapers are incessantly repeat- ing the statement that We are constantly losing ground in spelling efficiency. Various explanations are offered for this unhappy condition of affairs; but the reason most frequently given is that the energy of pupils is being dissipated by the study of "fads," and that they are not in consequence being drilled sufficiently in spelling. On the other hand, one may read statements to the effect that it does i 2 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING not make much difference whether pupils are trained in spelling or not, because "good spellers are born, and not made." There seems to be a settled con- viction in the minds of some persons that certain types of pupils never can learn to spell well, be- cause they do not possess the particular intellectual "powers" required for success in this undertaking. Meanwhile every one seems to feel competent to give advice respecting the best methods of teaching Conflicting opin- this study. It is apparently re- ions and counsel garded by most laymen and some educational people as a simple subject, so that any sensible person can formulate sound opinions relat- ing to the way in which pupils may be got to learn it most readily and effectively. In consequence of this attitude on the part of all sorts of people, with- in and without the schools, teachers are much con- fused because of the variety of counsel which is being given them. They are advised now by this person to give more attention in their daily pro- grams to oral spelling; while another person tells them they ought to abandon oral spelling altogether, and concentrate wholly upon written work. Still another person will advise that the text-book should be discarded altogether, and that lists of words for spelling should be taken from all the studies being pursued by the pupil. There are those who main- tain that if the spelling in the regular written ex- ercises be properly looked after, it will not be nec- essary to have any special period devoted solely to INTRODUCTION 3 drill in spelling. And so one might go on at length along this line, giving evidence showing that there appears to be slight agreement among laymen or teachers respecting either the causes of our deficien- cies in spelling, or the most efficient methods of remedying them. The chief reason why there is this disagreement in regard to spelling is because we are dealing with The reason for an extremely complex subject, differences of though it has been generally treated as if it were exceedingly simple; and we have not thought it necessary to investigate it thoroughly in order to discover the factors which are operating to determine success or failure in the way it is presented in the schools. The layman can not, of course, give the time re- quired for an analysis of this subject. He thinks something is wrong; he feels pupils can not spell as well as they ought to; and he concludes that they should be subjected to more rigorous drill in the school. The layman's remedy for all short- comings of this sort is to give the pupil more of the thing in which he is defective "drill on it harder," he says. It is his conception that when a thing is not properly learned so that it can be used, it is because there has not been enough of time spent on it. And the layman is not the only one who can not take the time to look into the mysteries of these things. The busy teacher, too, is so overcrowded that he can not analyze these 4 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING problems, because he must pass rapidly from one task to another during the entire day. He often realizes that the spelling problem is complicated, that there are various factors cooperating to pro- duce the results that concern us, and that the situa- tion should be examined more critically than it ever has been; and yet he is almost if not quite helpless to do anything about it. He must go ahead and teach the day's lesson the best he can, according to the light that has come to him from one source or another mainly the traditional belief in the way the child learns. In this respect it is no more different with spelling than it is with all the other subjects in the program. At the same time, some attempts have been made to apply careful analytic methods to the problems Why pupils find of spelling in order to discover, if spelling hard and possible, the reasons why pupils do not learn it more accurately and readily. Recently much has been said about the unphonetic character of our words, which makes it practically impossible for a child to learn them without supreme effort of memory. The men who have been delving into this matter have been so impressed with the difficulty of learning to spell English words that they have determined to revise many of them with a view to reducing them, as far as possible, to a phonetic basis. But no matter how sympathetic we may be toward this spelling reform, we must appreciate, nevertheless, that for INTRODUCTION 5 many years to come children will have to be taught to spell English words in their present forms, with perhaps a dozen or two exceptions. In this con- nection, it may be worth while to note that there probably is no study in the curriculum which is less attractive to pupils than spelling as it is ordi- narily taught. In the course of the investigation described in this volume, inquiry was frequently made of teachers regarding the interest which their pupils took in spelling, and the answer was always the same in effect children almost hate their spell- ing, except when they can make it an occasion for a contest of some sort, as in "spelling down." There seems to be little if anything about the memorizing by main force of the form of a word which appeals to the typical pupil anywhere in the schools. With a view to contributing something to the so- lution of these various problems, the authors of this The purpose and y olume have cond cted a series of scope of the pres- investigations extending over a considerable period of time. The problems which have been studied are those which the teacher encounters in his every-day work in the class room. The method of investigation has in- cluded, first, an examination of the spelling history and abilities of a large number of pupils in a rather general way ; and, second, a study of a small group in a very thoroughgoing manner. University and high-school students have been tested to determine their ability to spell a selected list of words, and 6 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING an effort has been made to get from the students themselves an explanation of their own processes in attempting to spell the words given them, and of their training in respect to all the matters that might have a bearing on spelling efficiency. It be- came apparent as the results of these inquiries were gained that an investigation of this sort could not do more than open up the real vital problems of spelling ability, of method of teaching, and of the range of one's spelling vocabulary. In order to get at these problems in a more intimate way than could be done in studying a large body of pupils, it was necessary to have a limited group (it comprised four boys in the seventh and eighth grades, one a good speller, one an average speller, and two who were inferior in spelling) who could be taught spell- ing in a great variety of ways, and who could be fol- lowed from day to day in every phase of their reaction to the lessons given them and the tests applied to them. The results of these investigations are presented in Part I of this volume. Through- out the work, it was the aim to trace the steps by which each pupil mastered the words in the lists used. A record was kept of every detail of each pupil's experience in conquering new words, whether easy or difficult. An analysis was made of the structure of each word taught, to find out what part of it occasioned the chief trouble, and whether or not the crucial point was the same for all pupils. Individual differences in method of attacking words, INTRODUCTION 7 in the types of errors made, in the readiness of overcoming the errors, and in getting a mastery of the correct forms were all carefully recorded, and the results are presented in this volume. It is be- lieved that in this way a rather interesting and valuable body of material is brought together and interpreted with respect to the practical problems of teaching spelling economically and effectively to pupils of different intellectual types. Suggestions regarding the treatment of pupils in mass and as individuals are made frequently throughout the dis- cussion of the various topics which are considered. The most important problem connected with the teaching of spelling has reference, no doubt, to the The spelling character and range of the vocab- vocabulary u j ar y to ^ taught. How many words and what ones should be presented in the elementary and high schools? All sorts of answers have been given to this question by various individ- uals ; and these have been based almost wholly upon individual opinion formed in one way or another. But it has seemed to the authors of this volume that the only rational way to determine the range of a spelling vocabulary is to find out in some manner what words people actually use in the communica- tions of every-day life. So it was decided to exam- ine a large amount of correspondence in order to see what words were employed. This correspondence was selected so as to represent various interests and callings and occasions, and it is probable that 8 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING it is quite typical of 'the needs of most American people in these times. All the words used were tabulated, and the frequency of the appearance of each word was determined. The results of the in- vestigation are presented in Part II of this book. After this list had been worked out, and it seemed apparent what words played the leading role in the every-day writing of American people, it was de- cided to test the list by an examination of fresh correspondence, and by a study of the letters writ- ten by people in newspapers, these letters having reference to various topics, and produced by people in different walks of life. The list secured by the authors of this volume, which began to have the appearance of a standard list, was then compared With a list suggested by Ayres in an investigation which he made of business correspondence. It was found that the list derived from the family correspondence, and applied to all sorts of every- day writing, proved to be substantially a standard list. So the authors feel confident that the lists and tables as presented in Part II indicate quite accurately the needs of the typical American to-day in respect to written expression. In order to throw further light on this matter, there have been added as an Appendix to this vol- ume several lists of the words that children use more or less spontaneously in the different grades of the schools. It was thought that a comparison of these words with those which adults find neces- INTRODUCTION 9 sary in order to express themselves effectively in every-day life might prove both interesting and useful. The lists that are presented in this volume may be regarded as well adapted to the needs of Ameri- can pupils who do not go into special pursuits, wherein they will be required to use special tech- nical terms that are rarely written by the great majority of people. Specialists will have need for this general standard list, if it may be so consid- ered ; but they will need in addition a few technical terms which can be acquired when the occasion for using them arises. CHAPTER II THE VALUE OF RULES FOR SPELLING A~J examination of modern texts in spelling reveals a striking lack of agreement regarding the value of rules for the learner. The Natural Present opinion Speller and Word Book does not and practise contain a single rule, and there are other spellers that omit rules almost entirely. But The Normal Course in Spelling goes to the }ther extreme, with eighteen rules presented in the course of eighteen consecutive lessons, seven of them having reference to plural formations alone. The length and simplicity of rules in different texts vary from "Nouns in o after a vowel add s for the plural/' with no exceptions, to "In monosylla- bles and words accented on the last syllable, a final consonant after a single vowel doubles before a suf- fix beginning with a vowel (x, k and 3? are never doubled), except when, in the derivative, the accent is thrown from the last syllable of the primitive," followed by the usual "other exceptions." In order to ascertain, if possible, the worth of ordinary rules in spelling, the following list of fifty words was submitted to certain classes of university students and high-school pupils. This list was sup- 10 THE VALUE OF RULES n posed to be a fair test of spelling ability, since it con- tained only such terms as are found in nearly all typical spelling-books of the present day. Doubtless most of the students examined had spelled all of these words in their spelling lessons, at one time or another, though it is not maintained that the list as a whole is one of great service in ordinary written communication. 1. ancient 18. courageous 35. concurrence 2. seizure 19. shoeing 36. regretted 3. foreign 20. singeing 37. conference 4. freight 21. mileage 38. rebellion 5. their 22. pitiable 39. gases 6. conceivable 23. furious 40. stoppage 7. piercing 24. greedier 41. quitting 8. thievish 25. fanciful 42. benefited 9. grievance 26. loveliest 43. quarreling 10. sieve 27. buried 44. potatoes 11. achievement 28. plenteous 45. folios 12. nervous 29. conveyance 46. music 13. encouragement 30. essayist 47. frolic 14. awful 31. betrayal 48. derrick IS. argument 32. dismayed 49. tying 16. peaceable 33. paid 50. dying 17. changeable 34. daily It should be noted that this list is composed of words which exemplify seven rules, with their ex- Material used for ceptions. The first eleven words the test come under a rule which is often expressed as "i before e except after c, or when sounded like a, as in neighbor and weigh." The words, piercing, thievish, grievance, sieve and achievement, illustrate the first clause of the rule, conceivable, the second, and freight and their the third ; seizure and foreign are exceptions to the first 12 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING clause, and ancient is an exception to the second clause. Seizure, conceivable, piercing, thievish, grievance, achievement, nervous, encouragement, awful, argu- ment, peaceable, changeable, courageous, shoeing, singeing and mileage are designed to cover a rule which may be stated thus : "Final e is dropped be- fore a suffix beginning with a vowel; but it is re- tained ( i ) when the suffix begins with a consonant, (2) when a word in -ce or -ge adds -able or -ous, (3) to keep the pronunciation of the word constant, (4) to maintain the identity of a word." Seizure, conceivable, piercing, thievish, grievance and ner- vous illustrate the dropping of e; mileage is an ex- ception; achievement and encouragement show re- tention of e under case (i); aivful and argument are exceptions to case ( i ) ; peaceable, changeable and courageous come under case (2) ; shoeing and singeing stand for cases (3) and (4) respectively. Pitiable, furious, greedier, fanciful, loveliest, bur- ied, plenteous, conveyance, essayist, betrayal, dis- mayed, paid and daily come under the rule on final y: "Final y after a consonant changes to * before all suffixes not beginning with i; final y after a vowel is usually retained." Furious, greedier, fan- ciful, loveliest and buried illustrate the first part of the rule, plenteous being an exception ; conveyance, essayist, betrayal and dismayed illustrate the last part of the rule, while paid and daily are exceptions. Again, we have the rule: "Monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, ending in a THE VALUE OF RULES 13 consonant after a single vowel, double that con- sonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel, un- less the suffix changes the accent." This rule applies to concurrence, regretted, conference, rebellion, gases, stoppage, quitting and benefited. Gases is an exception, conference shows the change of accent on adding the suffix, and benefited is a word not accented on the last. Potatoes and folios were intended to bring out the less familiar rule, "Nouns in o after a vowel add s for the plural." Music and frolic, with der- rick as an exception, show that "Polysyllables end- ing in the sound of k, in which c follows i or ia, do not add k" The last two words, tying and dying illustrate the rule that "Words in -ie substitute for these letters y before the ending ing" It was intended in this test to include words with only one authorized spelling ; but it seems that some authorities allow two I's in quarreling. Ac- cordingly, this word was left out of account in the consideration of the rule for the final consonant. Payed was marked incorrect, inasmuch as that word was probably not the one meant by any person tested. This test was first made upon certain students in the freshman class in the University of Wiscon- The persons si n - These students, because of teste< * deficient preparation, were a se- mester behind their class in English. The chief reason for giving them this test was the fact that over fifty per cent, of the seventy papers submitted 14 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING were from students who, in February preceding the giving of the test, which occurred in November, 191 1, had completed the course known as "Subfresh- man English," in which special emphasis is laid on spelling, the rules in general being thoroughly taught according to Wooley's MecJwnics of Writing* It should be said, however, that no instruction in spell- ing rules had been given during the semester in which the examination was held, though individual students had been referred to rules as their work required. The instructors gave this exercise as a part of the regular work of their classes, graded the words and noted the results. The written directions given each instructor for his class were as follows : I. Spell the following words, numbering them from i through to 50. (Then followed the list given above). II. Without changing any spellings, write all rules you consciously used in spelling this list, and after each rule the number of the words on which you used it, as 1st, I7th, etc. Do not be troubled by apparent exceptions to any rules you have in mind. Practically all have their exceptions. III. Write all rules you see exemplified by this list, but which you did not think of while spelling the words. If you can not give the * Seventy-six papers were received in all, but those of four foreigners, one person who came late to the test, and another person evidently of very defective hearing, were thrown out. In the other papers there was scarcely any difficulty due to lack of understanding. THE VALUE OF RULES 15 rule for any case exactly, give its essence, or tell what it is about, even in a vague way. We want all you know about spelling rules. IV. If you should be unable to give any data under II or III, say whether any one has ever tried to teach you rules for spelling. A desire to please the instructor may have in- duced some students to say that rules not consciously used were so employed ; but all the evidence indicates that the students were not writing for the benefit of the instructors. One who fell somewhat below the average in spelling ability said: "The writer will admit that his spelling is not up to standard, but when he has any literary work to do his trusty Webster is always beside him." On the whole, the students were frank in their statements concerning their training and their attitude toward rules. Practically the same test was given to thirty-nine seniors and thirty freshmen in the Wisconsin High School, a secondary school under the control of the University. The word daily was replaced by so- los, which comes under a different rule ; and quar- reling by exhibition, which falls under the same rule. The first four rules involved in the test had been taught to these pupils about two months before, though in simpler forms than those given above. A list of ten to twenty words exemplifying these rules had been worked through daily in the classes, about ten successive days in the freshman class and three in the senior class. The test was given nearly six weeks after the learning of the rules had been 16 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING dropped as a class exercise. The fourth clause of the instructions to the university freshmen was therefore left out in the directions to the high-school pupils, though the seniors were asked to give their opinion of the value of spelling rules to them, with- out regard to the supposed views of their teachers on the subject. As each of the seven groups of words was cor- rected separately, it resulted that the papers fell into three classes, according as the writers ( I ) con- sciously used a rule in writing any particular group of words; (2) later recalled a rule governing a cer- tain class of words, but did not consciously employ it; and (3) could not remember any rule that ap- plied to the words spelled. The records of these three classes are compared for each rule separately, since each rule needs to be considered independently of all others, because one rule may be very helpful to a learner, while another may not be of service to him. With reference to the first and second classes of papers just mentioned, it seems impossible to sep- Conscious versus arate the conscious from the auto- unconscious func- matic use of a rule. A rule might tioning of a rule , , , , , . be used consciously and very help- fully for a time, and then cease to be so employed, though it might still be of advantage in determining the spelling of certain words. It is for this reason that the records of all those having any knowledge of a rule are presented together. Some advocates THE VALUE OF RULES of rules may go so far as to say that those unable to cite any rule in spelling might nevertheless have realized some benefit from it before it was forgotten. This surely would not hold in the case of the students who took this special test. The recency with which they had been taught rules certainly gave the latter every possible advantage. The per cents, in the following table indicate the amount of correct spelling only so far as this is gov- erned by rules. For example, if the i and e are correctly arranged in ancient, the word is consid- ered correct in this table, even if there be elsewhere an error, making wrong the word as a whole. This method of recording is adopted necessarily because our inquiry has to do only with the observance of the rules. TABLE I OBSERVANCE OF THE RULES RULE Conscious of Rule While Writing Uncouscious of Rule While Writing Combination of All Citing a Rule Unable to Cite Any Rule High School Univer- sity HIeh School Unirer- ity High School Univer- sity High School Univer- sity Students Average) Students Average) Students -. u. E 1 * < Students Average) Students re ^ ^ Students a u CO b ^ Students Average) Students V E 9 < if.ei tfl 31 11 IB 79 M 74 n 25 90 is n 81 9t N in 21 1- 27 9 7a t>- 72 1 l:i 1 87 94 95 87 31 52 j>y 42 5 n 80 70 74 NJ 30 M n 34 la 81 M 94 to 95 3< 17 4D 27 01 73 n 73 n (51 40 41 sy a; 52 S8 8 91 M n Final e Final y Final consonant .. Final ie i8 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Curiously enough, most of the university students who said they consciously used the ie-ei rule relied The function of on mnemonic devices which gave the ie-ei rule a c i ue to only one or two of the eleven words. Of these devices the word "Alice" was the most common. It is used to indicate that when i and e occur as a diphthong after / and c, i always follows directly after / and e follows di- rectly after c. The slight superiority of those citing a rule does not, therefore, seem to be due entirely to the rule itself. Three subjects made one or more errors by stating the wrong rule and following it; while four made one or more errors by not follow- ing the rules they gave. No high-school freshman mentioned a rule as it had been taught to him, but four gave it nearly correct. Several of them wrote something about "When the word ends in ie or ei" etc., plainly confusing it with two of the other rules. Three seniors gave the rule substantially as they learned it, but nearly all the others who cited any- thing gave a version of something taught in earlier years the "Alice" rule, ei al. Sixteen different rules were stated by the twenty university students who told how they solved the Value of rule problem of final e. The most on final e nearly complete statement of a rule was "Drop final e before a suffix beginning with a consonant or to preserve the identity of a word." The rule seemed to be too complex for most of the writers. They stated it in general THE VALUE OF RULES 19 outline, without any qualification, or gave only some very special application of it. Several who had the case of -ce and -ge in mind were far more success- ful than the average. Three-fourths of the high- school students said they remembered some part of this rule. About a dozen had it very nearly exact in the simple form in which it was recently taught to them, but their grade in spelling was not above the average. Several university freshmen cited the rule for final y in acceptable form. The high-school fresh- Value of rule me n excelled the seniors in its re- on final y ca u The latter seemed unable either to use it or to recall it. It might be noted here that while the observance of this rule was easiest for the university group, and showed an advantage of three per cent, with them, it was most difficult for the high-school group, and showed with them a disadvantage of three per cent. This seems to show that something more than the use of the rule is involved. Very probably this rule, and hence the words to which it applies, had received rela- tively less attention at the hands of the high-school teacher and, on the contrary, relatively more atten- tion in the carefully outlined work of the university classes. Several of the college students were able to give more or less accurately the rule for doubling the Value of rule for final consonant. In this case the final consonant citations were not so much incor- 20 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING rect as insufficient, i.e., they were so phrased as to apply to only a very few of the cases which the rule as a whole covers. There seemed little in the rule itself to cause confusion or misapplication. About fifteen of the high-school freshmen and three of the seniors quoted the rule substantially as it was taught to them, but they failed to show any better average in their spelling than those who gave insufficient or erroneous versions of the rule. The correct application of the rule, as it had been given them by their teacher a few weeks before, would have enabled these students to attain an average of about eighty-three per cent., instead of the seventy- four per cent, which they actually attained. This certainly offsets the value of the rule in the spelling of the college students. The rule relating to the spelling of the last two words of the list appears to be more serviceable Value of rule than the other rules. It applies for final ie t o a c } ass o f WO rds without ex- ceptions. Thirteen of the sixteen college students who used it consciously stated it and applied it correctly. The high-school students who had learned it some time were less successful in ap- plying it, though four of them quoted it correctly. The rule relating to music, frolic and derrick was not given by any one, so there was no chance for comparison. A few who tried to formulate a rule on plurals for potatoes, folios and soJrs, attained a rank about twenty per cent, below their fellows in their spelling. THE VALUE OF RULES 21 The attitude of the college freshmen seemed gen- erally unfavorable to rules. Teachers were charged Students' attitude with having laid but little stress toward rules on t h ern> or w j t h having failed to insist on their application until thoroughly mastered. One writer said : "I knew most of the spelling rules, but they have become so indefinite in my memory that I am mixed up if I use them." Another said that he "attempted to learn rules for spelling but thought it added to the difficulty." Four others declared, after giving one or more rules, that they had decided that the way the word "looks" is the best guide. One of them complained of the long list of exceptions. Four who had been in the course in Subfreshman English* reported that they had lost almost all of the rules then taught them. One gave this amusing but rather significant testimony: "I was greatly helped, but because of lack of prac- tise they have grew vague." This suggests that it may be just as difficult after children have been spelling somewhat automatically for several years to get them to spell by rule, as it is in language work to get them to base their expressions on grammatical rules. The high-school seniors gave testimony substantially the same as that given by the college students. Only ten out of thirty-nine ascribed any value to rules. In summary, it may be said that no one rule was quoted by as many as fifty per cent, of the university students, though more than half of them had memo- * See p. 14. 22 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING rized all these rules, and others besides, only the win- ter before; and many of the students had been over all of the rules in the public school. A little less than half the high-school students had the courage to try to give the rules they had learned only six weeks previously. In the university group, those who gave some sort of rule to cover any part of the list of words, averaged four per cent, higher in general spelling efficiency than those who could not give any rule. So it is fair to assume that their better observance of the rules as shown by Table I is the result of their better spelling ability in general, and not to any conscious application of the rules as such. Not a single rule tested proved to be of real value, except the one for the last two words of the list that relating to the final ie. In later chapters we shall have much to say respecting the way in which a pupil actually does learn to spell, and this may help to explain why rules do not play a very important part in the process. CHAPTER III SOURCES AND CAUSES OF ERRORS THERE have appeared in print from time to time long lists of misspelled words selected from civil service examinations or tests of public school children by boards of education or others who are inclined to think that spelling efficiency has declined since the days of our forefathers. To those engaged in teaching it is discouraging rather than helpful to learn that a recent test of two hundred thirty-seven university sophomores and freshmen resulted in the misspelling of Macaiday by one hundred eighty-one.* But the report of this experiment goes further, and informs us that the one hundred eighty-one students who failed to spell the name of this well-known English author ex- hibited only fifty-one different ways of missing the word. It appears from this fact that some forms of misspelling are repeated by different individuals, which suggests that a few particular erroneous com- binations may enjoy a certain kind of popularity among those who take liberties in the matter of spelling. * Bulletin of Illinois Association of Teachers of English, Vol. Ill, No. 8. 23 24 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Now, for the better teaching of spelling it seems important that teachers should know how various x , , ... common words are most often Need of deter- mining causes misspelled ; yet one finds a general lack of understanding on the part of teachers relating to this matter. Some schools are doing a valuable work, however, in compiling lists of words misspelled in the upper grades, and referring them to teachers in the lower grades to be given some special attention. Where the schools are well organized, certain portions of such a list can be referred to the particular teacher who is likely to be responsible for establishing the first impressions of the words that give trouble. But teachers ought to know, in order to be of greatest service to their pupils, not simply that separate is a commonly misspelled word, but they should know also just where the mistake is likely to occur, and why, so that attention may be effectively directed to the source of trouble. While in many words, of which separate is an illustration, most teachers are aware of the point of special difficulty, there are many other words presented in the schoolroom, the difficult parts of which are not known to the teacher in advance. The writers have been im- pressed with this fact in the experimental work performed on the group of boys spoken of in Chapter I. The sources of error which the in- structor tried to guard against in the teaching of the lessons did not, he often found upon test, con- SOURCES OF ERRORS 25 stitute the major difficulties at all; he had been aiming at the wrong point. Any teacher can see how subtle a matter it is to pick out the sources of error, if he will give a list of common words to his class, and then tabulate the frequency of the various misspellings of each word. As a basis for discussion of this problem, it will be advisable to consult the tabulation of the misspellings of some common words as they occurred in the one hundred thirty-nine papers referred to in Chapter II. In the interpretation of these data, it should be understood that the writers are relying on observations of the group of boys already spoken of. Without such first-hand observation, it is impossible for an adult to be reliable in his explanations and deductions regarding a psychological experience remote in his own past. TABLE II SPELLING Frequency of Occurrence University Freshmen , i m l| *%$ High- School Freshmen ancient 70 36 2 21 2 3 i i i i anceint anciant anscient I anchint antient anxsion 26 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING SPELLING Frequency of Occurrence University Freshmen *!! *c*J High- School Freshmen foreign 64 4 33 2 15 4 4 2 I I I foriegn forgein forgien i i .... foregin foreighn foriegm foregien forein i i i i .... f oren f orhead thorn .... I I 18 4 2 I 2 I I I 9 6 6 ^ thorm pierciner . 66 2 2 3 1 2 2 2 peirciner . pierceing peirceing pearcing pircincr . I perciner perssingf . I preicingf . personly sieve 45 18 6 21 IO 5 seive sive ceive SOURCES OF ERRORS 27 SPELLING Frequency of Occurrence University Freshmen 911 Ku Wc/Jyj ^8 a 3fti| "T 1 <-> ?J w ^ h awful 65 I 32 3 I I I 22 I 2 I I I I I 22 4 I I I I 13 9 4 i i awfull auful awefull 2 2 auwfull awfle awfful auffell affull offel I offul offull ( illegible) argument 59 II 32 6 arguement aurguement argement argurment hurnment (omitted) I 28 2 dismayed 69 dismade dismaid dismay 4 2 I desmayed I desmaied dismeved . SOURCES OF ERRORS 29 SPELLING Frequency of Occurrence University Freshmen .ill W O J ^WU2 High- School Freshmen dismayence I I 8 i7 2 3 4 6 5 7 2 I I I I I I dismaided dissmayed I I 24 6 6 3 18 ii 6 2 dimayed betrayal 6 4 2 3 I 33 25 8 4 betrail betrayel (other purely individ- ual errors) benefited benefitted benifited benifitted benifit benefitied I benafated benifetted benefitting benfittin " benfited benififted binefited . I The above eleven words, tabulated in their vari- ous forms, were chosen at random from the list of fifty given to the students; and they illustrate 30 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING most, if not all, of the principles to be brought out in this chapter. A few of the words, which showed the greatest variety of odd misspellings, were excluded from the eleven presented above in order to save space. A study of this table of misspellings reveals a number of principles. In the first place, most read- Prevalence of ers will be willing to admit that chance errors j n respect to practically every word there are evidences of chance errors due to slips of the pen, misunderstanding of the word, or both. Scarcely any one will maintain that the wri- ters of such forms as anxsion, cib, slianey, shafe, neverous, engarrment, injurment, humment, dismay- ence, dismay, dismaided and benefifted were trying to write the precise words they were asked to spell. The misunderstanding may have been due to faulty pronunciation by the teacher, or it may be that the ear of the pupil was at fault. Again, it may have been due to the apperceptive difficulty most of us experience when we hear a name or isolated word. In such spellings as forhcad and thorn (for foreign), and personly (for piercing) it is evident that the pupil read a wrong meaning into the sounds which he thought he heard. Slips of the pen are accountable for some errors. Thorm shows the common occurrence of m when n is intended; and Slips of the pen the reverse is as often true. Dimayed represents another very common mis- SOURCES OF ERRORS 31 take, the hand omitting a letter in order to abbreviate the process of writing. There is strong probability of the same thing being true for argement, benfited and benfitting. Sometimes this curtailment takes place at the end of a word, as in siv, although this explanation is especially per- tinent to such a form as freigh (for freight}, the gh being so common a termination that it often automatically asserts itself in wrong places. A let- ter from a county superintendent recently received by one of the writers contained three successive words with the last letter omitted. Most students in taking rapidly the notes for a lecture are liable to use the for they, them, etc. What we call "carelessness" accounts ordinarily for such lapses in writing a spelling lesson in column, unless the pupil is greatly hurried. Preicing (for piercing} and mielage (for mile- age} illustrate another sort of error in spelling, the inversion of the order of the letters. But the shifting about of the g in -foreign can hardly be attributed to the same cause. The silent letter, by virtue of the very fact that it is silent, is liable to suffer all sorts of displacement. It is interesting to note that the same trick, inversion of literal or- der, is sometimes played by one's vocal organs, as common observation shows, not only with reference to oral spelling but also with reference to words and expressions, such as the famous "Peter Piper" jingle. Not only does a pupil change, the order of 32 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING letters occasionally, or skip a letter or syllable in order to facilitate execution, but the process is some- times reversed, resulting in the repetition of a phrase, word or portion of a word in the writing of connected discourse. To this cause is due such a spelling as convey anance (for conveyance). Several of these types of mistakes have been mentioned because they occur so frequently in every Treatment schoolroom. A teacher should of lapses regard them simply as lapses, which may not occur the second time with the same individual. Of course, if the same error does occur again, the chances are that it is not a lapse; but a wise teacher can not permit his attention to be distracted by mere lapses from the real points at issue in teaching a list of words. Teachers often fail to differentiate these "pen-slips" from errors due to lack of knowledge. Often, too, teachers mark as absolutely wrong a word which, although written incorrectly originally, was seen to be incor- rect by the pupil, and voluntarily corrected before the time for the submission of the work. Many lapses are detected in this way by those who com- mit them. On such a theory of grading, a con- tractor would penalize one of his bricklayers just as heavily for tearing down a defective portion of a wall as for building the superstructure upon it without remedying the defect. It is probable that such lapses as have been described are in no way related to real errors; and they can not be wholly SOURCES OF ERRORS 33 overcome, unless facility in expression be seriously interfered with by giving too much attention to the technique of writing. In the teaching of spelling in our public schools, a distinction should be made between lapses and real errors. Each must be penalized, but not in equal measure. Certain forms of lapses may be- come individual characteristics. One subject has been observed in whose writing think tends always to be written thing. A university student recently complained that he had to fight constantly against interchanging for each other d and g, both in pre- paring manuscript and in typewriting. These in- stances are given to show the likelihood that a careful record of misspellings may enable a teacher in time to detect the characteristic lapses of certain pupils, so that the latter may be put on their guard, and asked to go over their work in order to check up on their special failings. Most teachers find by experience that the vague unparticularized com- mand, "Look over your work," can secure only meager results at best. Let us leave out of consideration the particular misspellings which occur but a single time in the lists of Table II, as being for the most part lapses, and see whether or not among the other misspell- ings, those due to lack of knowledge, the compara- tive popularity of certain errors may not be clearly established. In arranging the table, there was an attempt made to place the misspellings in the gen- 34 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING eral order of their frequency, the most common ones standing first. One striking fact relates to the great difference in relative number of the vari- ous misspellings of a word, which must be due to a marked tendency of pupils to commit some particular error. Another suggestive fact is that the order of frequency of the misspellings of any word is almost exactly the same for all three groups of students. There would appear, then, to be in the constitution of certain words special difficulties which are a source of trouble to a majority of children learning to spell. It is not always possible to tell just which mis- takes are due to lack of knowledge and which to Is there a critical lapse ; but taking the situation as point in a word? we fj n( j j t> i et us see w hether a study of the frequency of different errors will not enable us to determine critical points, or perhaps the critical point in a given word, so that if some particular letter or brief combination of letters be properly impressed, the misspelling of that word will be likely to be corrected. Seven out of twelve pupils who missed ancient did so because the com- bination ie was not thoroughly familiar, and with four of the seven it was merely a question of the order of the two letters. Twenty-seven missed foreign, four of them trying to spell something else. Of the other twenty-three, the failure of ten was due solely to the reversal of the letters ei. Twenty-four students missed piercing, two of them SOURCES OF ERRORS 35 probably by chance. Eight of the others failed solely by reversing the letters ei, six by retaining final e and three by combining the two forms of error. Half of those missing sieve spelled it se'we, and over a fourth made it slve. The other errors were peculiar and exceptional, save for ceive, which appeared three times. Again, of twenty- four errors in writing nervous, ten made it ncrveous, and five others wrote nervious, thus showing the difficulty to be at the same place in the word in every case. Out of twenty-six mistakes in writing encourage- ment, sixteen were written encouragment. Argue- ment is the only misspelling of argument that is not strictly individual. These and similar cases that could be cited 1 from the list of fifty words, show that from one-third to two-thirds of all diffi- culties in spelling lie at the point of a word covered by some rule relating to it. Underlying much of the belief in the value of the teaching of rules has been the assumption that they relate to the points of chief Crucial points . often not covered difficulty in the words to which they refer. Some data bearing on this matter may be gained from an examination of the spelling of a number of the fifty words already given. The retention of e, as in awe full, appeared in only two of twenty cases of misspellings of this word, but the much less commonly taught rule (full does not occur as a suffix), was violated by a majority of the twenty students. In benefited, 36 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING tt appears in violation of the rule fifty-eight times; but bent, in violation of no rule, occurs thirty-five times. Thus the difficulties are some- what evenly distributed. In buried the results are quite different Twelve out of twenty-six doubled the r, and eight others combined it with another error. But only two violated the special rule re- lating to the retaining of the y in bury. Out of fifty-seven students who made errors in spelling essayist, thirty wrote essay est, while only eighteen violated the rule by omitting y. Eight of the eighteen can hardly be said to have broken the rule, since they did not write anything that could be recognized by a person not knowing what word was given out. Forty-two missed exhibition, but only one did so by violating the rule covering the doub- ling of the final consonant. Thirty-eight had no h in their spelling. In foreign, on the other hand, the omission of silent g was too unusual to create a problem. In concurrence, ance is a markedly more prevalent error than the failure to double the r as required by the rule. So if one were to say that the critical point in the spelling of those words that come under some rule is always the point covered by the rule, one would not be in accord with the facts. A few words in the list show a great diversity of genuine misspellings, but the errors are usually localized at one or two points in the words. Of about twenty misspellings of grievance, there were SOURCES OF ERRORS 37 only two that did not preserve the consonant skele- ton gr-v-nce. In thirteen misspellings of pitiable nearly all the trouble centered in the doubling of the t, and following it with the wrong vowel. It may be concluded that for ordinary words of three or four syllables, there is a single letter or diphthong that causes most of the trouble, and that it is altogether unusual to find more than two crucial points in a common word. It is plain that a knowledge of rules simply does not inform the teacher where the stress in teaching particular words is to be laid ; nor does the presence of a silent letter or the possible doubling of a consonant necessarily lay bare the source of difficulty. Every word pre- senting serious problems to the novice must be studied by itself, and the teacher can deal with it effectively only after examining the misspellings to see where the crucial points are. This can be done by any one who will tabulate the frequency of as many as fifty cases of misspelling of a word, though a smaller number will be suggestive. The discovery of the causes of error in spelling is the next step to be considered. This is an Mispronunciation easier matter than to locate crucial as a cause of error points. The cause of an error can ordinarily be detected from its character by teachers of experience. Few teachers need to be impressed with the importance of correct pronunciation of words to be spelled. The spelling exercise will al- most daily bring to light some errors due to mispro- 38 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING nunciation by the teacher, or by the pupils them- selves. Anchint is very likely a phonetic spelling of a mispronunciation of ancient. Outside of a few words of French origin, ch almost never has the sound sh. The same cause of error in spelling is seen in percing and perssing, and probably in nerivous. The spelling of encourgement six times and en- conrgment once by the high-school freshmen shows a lack of distinct articulation which among the younger students is a common practise. Even adults who give the a in courage a distinct value, tend to slight it or wholly to elide it in the longer forms, such as encouragement, discouragement, and the variations of the verbs from which these two nouns are derived. Des- in dismayed is another error due to mispronunciation. Benafated and beni- fetted illustrate the same principle, as disclosed by the vowel after /. The easiest and surest method for a teacher to test the question of pronunciation is to ask a child to pronounce a misspelling just after he has written it. Oral spelling, of course, offers ready means of making such a test. There can be no danger in insisting that all words to be spelled by a pupil should be pronounced cor- rectly by him as the first step in the lesson study. Even then it will be found that errors such as unaminous for unanimous will appear now and again, because pupils can not or at least do not hold the pronunciation faithfully in mind as they write. Errors due to mispronunciation are not so SOURCES OF ERRORS 39 numerous as those due to other causes which we shall discuss later. They are, however, of much greater frequency and importance in the lower grades of the elementary school than in the high school, for many of them have been acquired by the child before school age. It is peculiarly difficult to forecast what are the probable mispronunciations that will occur in the case of certain words, since two different sets of influences produce these errors. On the one hand, we have those individual associations made by each child for himself, such as caused one child to call a screen door "a scream door," because, as she afterward stated, it made such a noise when it closed. On the other hand, there are the peculiar survivals of the nature of dialect in the speech of every child, reflecting the idiosyncrasies in the spoken language of his family and friends. A most fruitful cause of errors in spelling is phonetic analogy. Persons with whom the auditory Analogies in factor predominates are much spelling subject to this difficulty. Some- times the analogy covers only a brief phonetic unit, while at other times a word is taken over entire. Antient shows the persistence of the common ele- ment ti, phonetically equivalent to sh. Pearcing is the result either of drawing an analogy from ear, fear, dear, etc., or it comes directly from the proper name Pearce. Words having the suffix -less or -ness may have been the cause of the spelling of 40 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING nervous as nervess; and novice and service may explain nervice. A very special case is presented by the like sounds of certain consonants or com- binations of consonants, as in the case of anscient, where sci is inferred from conscience. Likewise, the various uses of c, s and sc produced considerable confusion in sieve. The alternative of s or z is troublesome in some words not noted above, as, for example, seizure. Another factor is introduced when a child takes over a word as a whole on account of phonetic analogy, as ceaseur (for seizure), piece- able (for peaceable), berried (for buried), dis- made and dismaid (for dismayed). The pu- pil usually disregards the content of both the word transferred, and of the word to which he makes the transfer. This is not the case with the writing of full in awful, since the signifi- cance of awful is actually "full of awe" ; but it is true of off in off nil (for awful). And when piece enters into peaceable, maid or made into dismayed, trail into betrayal, and fitted into benefited, we have the incorporation into one word of another word altogether extraneous to the situation in which it is placed. Such mistakes tend to decrease with the development of a critical attitude toward one's language. When a student begins to diagnose his mother tongue, the idea of coritent comes to dom- inate in word composition, and he resists phonic analogies which have no regard to content. The in- SOURCES OF ERRORS 41 troduction of a foreign language, especially German, into the elementary school should be helpful in giv- ing students this attitude. Younger students can not be placed on their guard too fully against think- ing they may cite this or that word as a justification for the spelling of another word in a particular manner. There is only one real authority, and that is the way the word is spelled. Inferences may be drawn only from such other words as have a sim- ilarity in content. Many teachers have recognized as a cause of error the obscure or elided vowel, i. e., the vowel Obscure or which, though not silent, has its elided vowels sound so slurred as to deprive it of individuality. We see this in such words as separate, infinite, and words terminating in -able or -ible. The learner's tendency is to interchange and a, or to substitute e for either of them. U may sometimes interfere, but scarcely ever does o. In some spelling-books, lists of words containing such vowels are printed or written with the difficult vowel in heavy or unique type. In the schoolroom they are often written on the blackboard in chalk of a different color from the body of the word. But it is safe to assert that few teachers in the elementary school recognize that the obscure vowel is always a possible source of error. The writers have found by experience that they can not detect by a cursory examination all of these letters in lists of words in spelling lessons ; they can be discovered 42 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING only after painstaking search. One would hardly think the second vowel in benefit would give trouble, but the writers found it to be so in thirty-five out of eighty- four misspellings of the word. Final e in a number of monosyllables does not have any sound whatever in itself, but it might be considered as one type of elided vowel, because it modifies the pronunciation of the word. It is not often omitted by mistake, however, probably on account of the prominence of its position. Every obscure vowel ought to be presented with stress from the start; either by positive means, such as fixing the impres- sion by auditory and visual stimuli, intense and re- peated, or by the negative method of warning against the use of other letters which the pupil might be inclined to employ in its place. The latter method will further on be shown to have its dangers; and if it be employed at all, it must be closely watched for its effects. The mistake of doubling a letter happens much less frequently with the vowels than with the con- _ ,,. , sonants, probably because the Doubling letters . doubled vowel has a distinct- ive sound in the case of oo. The other vowels, except e, are not commonly doubled. But most of the con- sonants are frequently doubled, and the result is not apparent from the pronunciation of a word. The place where doubling is likely to occur is usually in the middle of a word where a syllable stops or begins with a certain consonant. The mistake arises SOURCES OF ERRORS 43 in assigning the consonant to each of the two ad- jacent syllables, as singging (for singeing), millage (for mileage), pittiable (for pitiable), furrious (for furious) and burried (for buried). Following the same principle, one member of a double consonant may be dropped under like circumstances, as der- ick (for derrick), stopage (for stoppage} and re- belion (for rebellion). Just what corrective measures, if any, are espe- cially adapted to counteracting this difficulty, can not be stated with confidence. It is impossible to form- ulate rules for doubling letters that shall cover any large number of cases without numerous exceptions. For a discussion of the efficacy of such rules the reader is referred to Chapter II. Directing the at- tention upon the crucial points is recommended, as in the case of elided vowels. Special stress on double combinations, by means of oral spelling with- out regard to syllabication, might prove very helpful as a means of fixing the doubled letter, especially for those in whom auditory imagery is strong. The method might be, for example, as follows: Have pupils spell coffee "c-o- double /- double e" or village "v-i double l-a-g-e," and so on. This brings us to an important principle con- nected with spelling that is closely related to Types of letters SCVeral CaUSCS f em)r - J USt half the letters of the al- phabet are "single-space" letters. Six rise more than one space above the base line, five pass below 44 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING it but only a single space above it, while / and p stretch both above and below the "single-space" let- ters. In printing, / and p fall into one of the three distinct classes, but the classification here has regard only to writing. Considering the last two letters as hybrids or combinations, we have the three types of letters the "ascender," the "single-space" and the "descender." Now, if any ordinary writing be examined, two- thirds of the letters occurring will be found to be of ,the single-space variety. Most of the others will be "ascenders." But it is plain that either the first or the third class of letters will stand out more prominently than the second, just as a pedestrian of uncommon color, garb or language will be more marked than one who is conventional in these respects. It is likewise true that the further removed such a letter is from others of its kind in a given word, the more prominently it will stand forth. This principle explains why, in the various mis- spellings of such a word as ancient, most students made mistakes which did not interfere seriously with the visual image of the word, i. e., they maintained the succession of single-space letters. In foreign the visual impression made by g, rather isolated from other unusual and striking letters, causes it to be found, rightly or wrongly placed, in nearly every misspelling of the word. On the other hand, exhibition presents an alternating series of short and tall letters, and the omission or mis- SOURCES OF ERRORS 45 placing of h does not seriously affect the visual image. This also accounts for the difficulty in doubling or not doubling letters, the substitution of one vowel for another when the sound is obscured, and the confusion of c, s and sc, though it does not explain the interchanging of j and z. To illus- trate further, if ss were written old style, we should be much less likely to find pasion (for passion), or if e after n were a "descender," we should not have found benifit thirty-five times in our list of misspellings. Dividing a word into syllables may act as a preventive of error to the extent that it secures correct pronunciation, Syllabication . . . and checks the omission or syllables in long words. Yet it may well be asked whether the short e in benefited, for example, is more likely to be remembered because ben- is recalled as the first syllable instead of be-, or whether, as in the case of one of the writers, ben- is recalled as constituting the first syllable be- cause the correct pronunciation is remembered. This difficulty would not exist if ben- were visually pre- sented as a distinct syllable just as often as the auditory element is repeated by speaking the word, hearing it spoken, or writing it. But ben- as a visual entity disappears from consciousness as soon as the pupil turns from the spelling lesson, while the word remains as a unit in audition, in content, and most of all, in vision. 46 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Whether this view is sound or not, it can not be denied that syllabication is often merely arbitrary as far as pronunciation is concerned, whereas it is usually thought by adults to be fully in accord with the phonetic character of words. To adults there is no inconsistency in saying that such a combina- tion as betrail consists of two syllables; while be- trayal, of course, contains three. But a child can write them interchangeably and see no violation of phonetics, just as when a boy writes mechanisem (for mechanism}. The almost universal resistance of children's minds to proper syllabication indicates that it is a matter of unusual psychological signifi- cance and that it should be regarded with due cau- tion as an aid to correct spelling. If the propositions so far advanced have been true in the main if each word presents a special -.. complex of visual and auditory Directing atten- . * tion to the crucial elements, different from all other point in each word words _ there will necessarily be unique features or factors in the teaching of each word. For example, in the teaching of ancient one should call special attention to the sh sound in pronunciation and note the spelling in this case; ie also should be stressed. Foreign will not be found hard to pronounce correctly, but the ei should be made the stressing point, not simply in itself, but in relation to the shifting g. In benefited the second c must be presented with force from the start. If this be done, probably the * will SOURCES OF ERRORS 47 never appear, for there are no common words in beni-. But citing several common ones like benefi- cial, benevolence and benediction might strengthen the correct impression. The ft in benefitted can not be so well dealt with on a visual or auditory basis, but the element of content may be invoked by show- ing the words fit, unfit, misfit, discussing their re- lation to one another, bringing out the tt in the appropriate form of each, and then dissociating the content, hence the spelling of benefit from the con- tent and spelling of these other words. Such is the type of "word study" that must come to have a place in every schoolroom in which spelling is taught. CHAPTER IV THE LIFE HISTORY OF CERTAIN SPELLINGS IT is desired to show in this chapter just what stages a group of boys passed through in learn- ing a list of about seventy words chosen from a Words assigned widely-used spelling text. The in experiments subjects of this experiment were the four boys mentioned in Chapter I. A daily assignment was made for five successive days. The experimenter wrote the words on the board in "fam- ilies" as he called them, such as inspire, inspiration; mechanism, mechanic, mechanical, and so on. There were from six to twelve such groups in each day's lesson. The original intention was to present a series of twenty or twenty-five lessons by five dif- ferent methods, following one another in a constant order, as a basis for determining the comparative merits of the different methods of presentation ; but the text-book list was so far beyond the ability of the class, and, it is believed, so far beyond that of the ordinary child for whom it is designed, that it was decided at the end of the fifth lesson to concentrate upon these seventy-five words, and see 48 THE LIFE HISTORY 49 what experiences the pupils must have in order to master them. All preparation of spelling lessons was done dur- ing the class hour. The first two lessons the experi- menter pronounced and spelled Methods of presentation orally, the class spelling orally and study anc j p ronouncm g a f ter him. For the first lesson, sentences containing the words were used in the study, and for the second, definitions were given, but no words were used in sentences. The third lesson was pronounced and spelled orally by the experimenter, and the pupils were told to study it as they pleased. All of them did as com- mon observation shows most pupils do when left to their own resources to prepare their spelling les- sons they simply looked at the words on the board, and presumably "said them over to themselves." The content of the words was not referred to dur- ing this lesson. For the fourth and fifth lessons the pupils looked at the words and their definitions and heard them pronounced, but they were not asked to pronounce them themselves. They then wrote the words on the board, using those in the fourth lesson in sentences so far as time permitted. The words of the fifth lesson were not written in sentences. To sum up, the third lesson was a go- as-you-please one of the old type, while the other four were half of the contextual and half of the column type. Two of them were recited orally and two were written. 50 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Each lesson was written in a test the day after it was studied. The first lesson was written in sen- Methods of tences constructed by the class, recitation k u f- t h e other lessons were done in columns. This interval of a day between study- ing a lesson and reciting on it gave any well-defined errors a chance to ripen in consciousness for twenty- four hours before they were written ; though in the study of the four lessons supervised, all errors were instantly corrected. All the errors made in the written test on each lesson remained undisturbed for another twenty-four hours, or until the next day. In teaching the lesson, points which the ex- perimenter thought might prove difficult were stressed in various ways. A vertical line was drawn through words of the same "family" at the point where their likeness ceased, as inspir\e, in- spir\ation; mechan\ism, mechanic. Double or silent letters or obscure vowels were underlined, as intelli- gence, courageous, infinite; and the difference in pronunciation and spelling of the first two syllables of such words as mcchan\ical and machinist was emphasized. The next day after the test on each lesson, the boys were called on to spell orally the words they Methods of had missed. A tally was kept to correction show whether, when a word had been misspelled originally, the same incorrect form was given now, or a different one, or whether the correct spelling was given now or approved when THE LIFE HISTORY 51 presented. Each word in its correct form was placed on the board by the experimenter before it was left for good. When the five lessons had thus been corrected, and it was determined to continue work at length on the difficult words instead of presenting new ones, the entire list was again written in columns without any further study. A very thorough re- view was then begun. The test papers were re- turned to the boys, and every word that had been missed by any one was written correctly on the board by all. Each word was now for the first time divided into syllables, all the boys showing some skill in this. Correct pronunciation of each word was required. The word was then written again in a sentence suggested by the class. Every boy was required to underline that part of any word in which his mistake had occurred. The whole list was next written in test for the third time. Only contextual spelling was attempted. The meaning of the words now seemed to be so clear to the class that in the next review-study there was no context- ual work. With their last papers in their hands, the boys took each word missed by them individ- ually, and wrote it on the board twice. If a word was not written correctly on the board and without much hesitation or apparent change of mind, the boy who was writing it continued his efforts until he could execute the whole word without a slip. 52 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING After this the fourth and final test was made by writing the words again in sentences. Table III shows the general progress of the class from start to finish as gaged by the number of words missed on each test. TABLE III ISt 2nd 3rd 4th Pupil test test test test A 57 37 33 ii B 34 ( abs ent ) 17 C 18* 30 24 10 D 34 36 28 ii Barring B, who missed the second and third tests and all the training for them, the rank of the Capacity for other three continued the same improvement up to t h e last test. C had at the beginning a feeling of superiority, which de- clined as his fellows gained on him. Both C and D showed an actual loss from the first to the sec- ond test, but elsewhere there was a steady advance- ment. A showed the greatest capacity for improve- ment from intensive study of difficult words, and C showed the least. This is the inverse order of their abilities to spell in various tests which they took later on. The improvement occurred in two ways, by the * For only four out of the five lessons THE LIFE HISTORY 53 gaining of new words and by the retention of those already spelled correctly. The latter shows great variation from pupil to pupil. Table IV indicates the number of words missed on any test, which had been spelled correctly on the preceding test. TABLE IV Total 8 (as against first test) 22 18 The power of gaining new words and holding the old ones seemed to be correlated closely in this Learning and intensive training series. This retaining raises the question, often debated, as to whether the slowest learner is the best re- tainer. In another series of lessons, discussed from a different point of view in Chapter VI, very inten- sive training in spelling was given these same four subjects, with the result that there was practically perfect immediate recall of all words. But the course of lessons was extended until one hundred sixty words were presented. Without any recall one day of those missed the day before, and with a considerably longer time elapsing between the first (daily) test and the second (final) test, A showed his power plainly on the immediate daily recall, 54 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING and was superior to all the others ; but on the final test, when the entire one hundred sixty words were written without review, he turned out to be the poorest retainer in the group. So it appears that A, the best retainer according to the test of the present chapter (as indicated by Table IV) is the poorest retainer in the experiment of Chapter VI. Evidently the different results in these tests are due to the different conditions of the two experi- ments. One set of conditions was just suited to A's type of mind, while the other was not. He illustrates a kind of pupil found in nearly every class, the kind of pupil whose diligence brings sat- isfactory, sometimes excellent, results in the daily work, but who "never does well on examinations." Students of this sort may correct any minor mis- statement of the teacher in the daily geography or history lesson, but show a woeful ignorance of the same and other much more vital points at the time of the monthly quiz. No answer as to the relation of learning and retaining appears possible, as long as we aim at a general formula that shall cover all conditions and cases. Generalizations of this character, as far as they relate to spelling, must be accompanied by a statement of the intensiveness of the study, the number of times of recall, and the time elapsing between tests. We may now look more closely into the question of the persistence of certain mistakes in spelling THE LIFE HISTORY 55 Persistence mad e by this group of boys, of errors M o s t teachers doubtless have noted how a misspelling will crop out again and again in the work of a student, even though he may have been reminded repeatedly of his mistake. The same thing appears in the work of this group. In Table V, all errors have been tabulated for each individual so that a glance across the page will suggest how a pupil worked out a certain word, or at least attempted to do so, through the whole four tests. The notes of the experimenter made daily as to special difficulties served to verify the general conclusions drawn below. All blanks indi- cate correct spelling. Points of difficulty are itali- cized as far as possible. 56 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING /3 "^* ^1 " c -a &# 3 s 2 11 'ii ? i ! " I -O.^.^EE a'a aj s J-GCOO UrtC-S *S*7! 5 o tny= nc P 5 5 % -2 c C *!^ L^ t-f^] Q 2 *5'5'3 sf '^"S'S'o"S : 5 : 5 . C 3 3 S ^ t( V V V t < *3 S.S.SP u b w 8 SSEEE.S.S o THE LIFE HISTORY $7 C C f 2 rt rt ."ti <3 00 & ft w ill i i a iS s | |Sl.lM lliill-1 &* i Si O^iS^^K rt-S 3 2 -0-0 . o> ;S.O -;<^o "2 *S "v 'C 'E 5 "w 1 " "'% '? E E E E S && ^.S.S-S ES2S2SSS.cu S.a fl M 9 (I 58 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING E.S.S **5 to to g- C C w <** ~ I 1 f* I c s a 'C 6 CM to to . noo i-i^,T3 uj^rs Sc"5 ^5 .|g *'g| 6o THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING * -S ^ .O V> ;3 e c n bo bo *J S E "rt S E e 5 3 .2~ e n-~ .2? a o J3 ;=: E E E E . S C u I/! t/) "73 * *S O rt 0,0 C C o 3 3 E EE * .S.S EEC C C C ?J3 SCO S bObOOCo j i^T3 ti 41 E E E S S.S.S ^ U^J SSifl' o 8 a E S -' ** rt *- E.S H O 9 I * I.ft.fl Ugggwu^S^u:; gfiuiUorttol/iSS .S*O-O'OSa2OOCC II 73 "rt E E >>' 11 c > w i? rt c IS gq= 5.C C 3 , *> +-l ->* S "v I ill? 3 3 I " .5 .S.S.SP .. j- c E ' -- w >>H . - -i ii il'iif f llliii ii 11AB8 & E E s si E E s.s-s s s^ 62 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING c >% S t- i- o u v 9 % a ^ .o 33 Q l-t T3t- . TJ -r ^c _c w - " gg-ll 1 -I^.I^s Sss jsl slli il iiillil lil III sss O o.^ -s y ii i s HI ..2 ! ^" tfi 5 1 A< 2" ? fc 'i o fc O -~' "2 >> < H -6 D. U S 01 < * nj o S 1 -g CO V w tfrl 211 ^ g'j 2 S w B o H) V) u o P j M u E z EC HH 1 1 1 1 w ROBINSO H H O S S S T3 S; ts 2 s O I p> H IK B Oo. o u:^ ** in r^t H PQ U o fd '5 43 * O <; J C " ^s g >. a H * P, ?! *r^ co W H "S ^4* >- rt G ^'3 . H O C J C -^ ^ t SB-g^g o '5 . Q JJ .S.S^J 2 , "a 5. *-^ k4 d ^ 5 ^J to vU "O -5 S5 ^ C CL, O '"*' _o ** JH o -*- >-. 'S- 5 "? I I 2 ~. ^ e ? ! r ; - --^ j_i = S ^g 2 -Z V * 8 *3 rr ca a= j 43 a X 5 *? E 8- 41 i- w a, were (whe grout (gou cir E chamb rously ca 4J ^^ '1 C8 <- K o ^S t> _ O. bo 'S&.s aSss (X'C 52 W O. COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 77 "2 -^ rt u p r .S t> f* E 0. o S >. '5 | - a a, .S a o. 8 bo c C _>, a S ^ S S v 5 *!s 9 o C u *O oa a Bi o 2 cu > e-S I 3 g o "1 o el > bOG a w o O.'O w & Q. C o S v a m s J e jpa JiTJ C tfl a> boa = S |* 78 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING 55 > 4, *T3 tn u s ffl O "^3 4) in 2- "3 3 2 s 3 O "H, 2 O *"* 4) G Ji >> ""* 4) Q. O"y S S 0.2 O 0*9 forhead hundere appeare picturesi >, rt V cS ^ 3 rt a >- 3 i CK "8 J O a 4> 5 O jj c c o u 'S 4> rt'S, o 3 O Z Q _3 ^S '2 OT < n o 4J ^ 4> ' CHIC LVXDia 4) "3 T3 Hj 8 s s ~ O 4) U >- a | o min. is 1^ U '5. A O 4) 55 O I 1 H DLUMN _>, 3 y -o 4> .12 4) U G C erniss n Z | S CQ u | rt rt a O O bo c 6 *S U HH t/) & z Q pi DICTATIO affectually onsumed) V j minace S oicturesk jj, "a *~* z a X-. ti U) 4) u rt n r^ & H) O < u r 4) a i |s a ?3 C 8 8.2 j^ (J~4 V: e w .S 8 ^ .j- .52 U w * egermou 4) U ^"^ ! *^ ** ^^ g w mines !/. rt "E u T3'>, fcs 2 ' 3.5 C= appearei picture** v JU y( 4> Pi DICTATIO affectional runse reclessely 4) S^ O *W OT^> U 4> U n u egerness ^C W 111 ^ bcm minest hunderds appearenc pisturesk COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 79 f .? 5 o 1 a C S -2 !>.rt *> 'C-2 ^ t> a, *g a a *j s'o a *ss a s^ 2 4i J3 4) HiS S >3 6 II sill s s S ^ i J I H *j *-> X t 'r 1 58 SloSak, 8 it! . i i! U Se*- 1 -sr a , a a tt a a s & r:8 ,c^ "2 g 1 c S^ Ho a^^'s 4) Qi t> tv C *^ ^ "38 ^S 'c 3 a o3 ^;u *3 9 w B * ** bo (4 O 4J O m_ M I VJ . <-* O C x fl TO ^ tj Q U J1J 2 ^ J3 *^ D '** j Sugg's ii II I? ^ t ii^i o ra b 2 o 2X1 c e S c fe C ^^ w d A C ViQ Oi .t:couc.::- ex M Q tiiii 51" iJS ag-.aeJTS S = s ' x o rt S 3 o^3 S- 6 'S S 80 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING The errors given above have been tabulated in Table IX. The columns are headed in Roman nu- merals, Column I including those words which a sub- ject misspelled in the same manner on both column and dictation tests. Column II includes words spelled differently in the two tests, but missed in both. Column III shows words spelled rightly in the dictation test, but wrongly in the column test, while Column IV presents just the opposite record, i. e., the number wrong in dictation but right in column. So Column III shows cases of apparent superiority of the dictation method, while Column IV shows cases of apparent superiority of the col- umn method. In the last two columns have been noted the number of words which, right in one test, were wrong in the other, the mistake consisting of the omission of a single letter. The presumption is that nearly all of those in Columns V and VI show a mere lapse, not genuine misspelling. Col- umn V gives those right in dictation but wrong in column, Column VI gives those wrong in dictation but right in column. Each figure in the first column exceeds the corre- sponding one in the second, except for pupil A, who reverses this order for both selections. Slightly more than half of the one hundred three words missed in both column and dictation were repeated errors ; and if A's record be ignored, over two-thirds were repetitions. In only one case is a figure in Column III larger COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 81 TABLE IX Pupil and Selection T II TIT TV V VT A Robinson Crusoe ... . 4 17 5 9 3 Chicago Fire 11 16 6 10 1 1 B Robinson Crusoe 5 4 3 R 1 4 Chicago Fire. ..... 10 2 3 3 2 C Robinson Crusoe . . 4 2 1 5 8 Chicago Fire 5 2 3 11 2 3 D. Robinson Crusoe 5 3 7 11 2 2 Chicago Fire. . 9 4 8 5 4 1 Totals 53 50 36 62 10 19 Subtracting Columns V and III and IV respectively VI fr Dm 10 19 26 43 than the corresponding figure in Column IV. The T d f ^ rst i m P ress i n made in reviewing measuring loss by transfer these results is that the tendency to miss words in column which were right in dictation is to the tendency to do the reverse as 36 to 62. Thus column spelling appears to have an advantage as to accuracy. But the words in Columns V and VI should first be subtracted from the totals of Columns III and IV respectively be- fore we may say that we have any real measure of the tendency of actual errors to be committed. The standard of spelling on the whole seems to have been influenced somewhat by the change from 82 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING contextual to isolated spelling. This is most truly represented by the difference between twenty-six and forty-three, or seventeen words. This difference of seventeen words is what we may call the actual loss in efficiency, which, when compared with the total number of test words, sixty for each selection, or four hundred eighty for all the group, is three and fifty- four hundredths per cent. Or we may measure the same thing by another criterion. If the loss is seventeen words, there has been an increase of about ten per cent, in the frequency of errors, since the total number of words missed by all the class was one hundred seventy-two. The data presented thus far would be held by many as illustrative of the principle that a word The conventional spelled in column may be more or conclusion j ess use less in actual writing, and that therefore the formal spelling of isolated words does not insure their correct spelling when the child tries to use them in expressing his thoughts. Those taking this view would insist that the difference in the two situations, one of them formal, the other dynamic, is so wide that transfer can not take place. It may with equal validity be urged that the con- text dictated to a child may be just as formal as Genuine dynamic the words taken from it and spelling spelled in column, and that the situation becomes dynamic only when he writes to express himself. Special effort was made in the ex- periment just described to choose material that COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 83 would be appreciated by the group, but A showed by what he said that the writing of the dictation was for him a "grind," and the reactions of the others indicated that they regarded it in the same light. For this reason another test was planned. After a period of seven weeks during which the group had not met with the experimenter, two of them, C and D, were secured for a series of exer- cises. To throw them off their guard, it was ex- plained that the old matter of spelling would be laid aside, and attention would be given to facility of expression. Subjects for composition were as- signed and outlined somewhat in detail. Both boys expressed themselves as better able to write on the topics presented than on anything they could sug- gest. Then they were allowed a certain amount of time, and told to write as easily and rapidly as possible. When the papers were received, lists of words misspelled were selected from them, and others correctly spelled were added to such lists. These were spelled in column, with the explicit statement that while some of them had been missed in the compositions, others had not. Table X shows misspellings taken from the themes of C and D on six different subjects (totaling nine hundred one and fifteen hundred ninety-two running words respectively), and the subsequent column tests based on the themes. All words passing from right on one test to wrong on the other by the omission of a single letter or the substitution of n for m, are 84 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING italicized, to indicate mere lapse rather than genuine error as the probable cause of the trouble. TABLE X PUPIL C Composition. launchs '(launches)^ fishs (fishes) minows (minnows) inchs (inches) pricaple (principle) companyS (companies) sledes (sleds) bublcs (bubbles) tu'drds (towards) succesful (successful) hocky (hockey) frezes (freezes) thich '(thick) allready (already) birth (berth) bigest (biggest)' !( steamers y (pickerel) .'(minutes) Column. succesful hocky frezes thich bigest steammers pickeral rninites Composition, tipy peir minnoe too '(tippy)' (pier) (minnow) !(to) Column. mmoe COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT Composition. Column. tobogan (toboggan) tobogan bottum (bottom) freazes (freezes) fruquently i( frequently) amunition (ammunition) amunition / ruble (trouble) throwen (thrown) squarly (squarely) squarly deceve (deceive) a f read (afraid) a f read excitting (exciting) excitting stopcd (stopped) veiw (view) pickeral (pickerel) acrouse (across) acrouse swiming i( swimming) universitty (university) slott (slot) minuetes (minutes) interurbeen i(interurban) intererban tellephoned .(telephoned) telaphoned domb (dome) (smooth) smoth (courses) coarces ; ( commonly) connonly (steered) steared (angleworm) angleworn (either) earther (railing) railling (squirt) squrt (firecrackers) firecrakers (following) fowlling Summarizing the data of Table X we have Table 86 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING XI. The Roman numerals at the heads of the col- umns have the same significance as they did in Table IX. TABLE XI Pupil I II III IV V VI C . 5 6 3 10 11 17 6 5 D 3 5 Totals 11 9 V an aspect 3 d VI vely 13 5 28 11 5 11 Subtracting Column from III and IV i 8 17 C shows a difference of two words against the transfer of column to contextual spelling in a vo- cabulary of two hundred sixty-three words and a total of nine hundred one running words of com- position; D shows a similar difference of seven words in a vocabulary of three hundred ninety- three occurring in a total of fifteen hundred ninety- two running words of composition. The very small loss in transfer by C on this test is due to his great care in composition, and the fact that he is always much more careful than D in his spelling. The decrease in frequency of errors in column over contextual writing, as derived from Table XI, is twenty-four per cent., counting no word twice for the same individual, a method of figuring which gave slightly under ten per cent, in the earlier ex- COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 87 periment with the four subjects (see Table IX). The loss in efficiency, nine words, as compared with the total number of test words fifty-five is six- teen per cent, as against three and fifty-four hun- dredths per cent, in the former experiment. The smaller figures for the first experiment are doubt- less the result of the formal character of material dictated by the teacher. The writers would insist that the figures for the later experiment reflect more nearly the actual difference between the formal sit- uation in column spelling and the dynamic situation in ordinary written expression. The cause of this loss in transfer is the next thing that must engage our attention. If the two Dispersion of activities isolated as contrasted attention with contextual spelling be ana- lyzed, certain differences appear. In the case of the former, the attention is concentrated on a few words, while in the latter it is distributed over a much larger number. Hence we should expect the mistakes to be increased in contextual writing. Suppose a boy can repeat perfectly the addition and multiplication tables. No one doubts that if he is required to multiply, for example, thirteen by twenty- four he will be more likely to give a correct answer than if he tries to add thirteen twen- ty-fours together. The processes in the last prob- lem may not from one point of view be more diffi- cult than those of the first, but the attention is distributed over a larger area, or rather is acting 88 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING for a longer time; hence the possibilities of its wandering are increased. So in the problem of spelling before us the attention is not only called to a larger number of words; it is directed to the maintenance of a proper order of the words. They are dictated, by another or mentally by the subject, in groups, and the entire remainder of each group must be carried in consciousness while any word of such group is being written. Then there is the matter of punctuation and capitalization to be cared for. Further, the context is likely to present a line of thought to the pupil, and this may distract his attention. The greater rapidity of writing in ordinary dictated exercises also prevents the review of each word immediately after it is written, though such a practise is possible and customary in column writing. But if a child is to spell correctly in his con- textual writing, and at the same time execute suc- Relative automa- cess fully all these other matters, tism in spelling j t j s necessary that many of the processes should become relatively automatic. Otherwise he will never acquire sufficient facility in these operations to meet properly the demands of later life. Let us waive all academic discussion of the question of complete automatism in spelling, for its existence is disproved by the constant oc- currence of lapses in the writing of all sorts of people. The matter of prime concern to teachers is the method by which the novice may be made COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 89 to pass from his habit of giving attention to the elements of words to the point where the formal processes in writing no longer occupy a focal posi- tion in consciousness. Since the learner can apprehend visually a larger unit than he can execute mechanically, the sentence . . method, though applicable in Automatic execu- , tion of the literal teaching reading, would be ut- clements tedy unsuited to a child j n h i s writing. He begins by executing only the very shortest and simplest words, or even more fre- quently the isolated letters. But modern educa- tional theory maintains that in teaching writing we should begin with the largest unit that can be ex- ecuted effectively, so that an analysis of letters into their component parts should follow rather than precede the writing of the letter as a whole. Thus it comes about that the mere thought of a letter will call forth its complete execution much sooner than could possibly be the case if the elements of the letter were first mastered in isolation and then combined. While the pupil is gaining this facility prerequi- site to written spelling, he has supposedly been ac- Oral spell- quiring a fairly ready command ingfirst of the literal elements of many short words by means of oral spelling. This knowledge should come through practise on the words as wholes, with only minor emphasis on syl- labic elements of words of more than one syllable. po THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Some teachers insist on keeping the written spelling up with the oral spelling from the start, but the possibility of such procedure is somewhat doubtful, and its economy is still more so. When the new problem arises of combining oral knowledge and graphic knowledge into successful Automatic control written spelling, there will be for of larger umts a tj me considerable hesitation and a profusion of errors. Teachers now need to be both painstaking and patient. Work of a contextual character, however, must soon be- gin, or the child will not come upon the neces- sity of thinking in larger units than single words. In fact, some persons grow up unable to compose and write at the same time with any degree of effectiveness, and a major reason for such an unhappy condition is probably the fact that they were not put to the preparation of free spontaneous composition at a sufficiently early age. Nevertheless, throughout the period when the pupil spells mainly in written composition new words should first be introduced separately in order to secure some degree of familiarity with them. Even adults who have become highly profi- cient in written expression must usually consider a new word carefully before they can run it off easily in their writing. The same principle must be eco- nomical as well as psychological for a child. At the same time, if should be said that only by building COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 91 up in the child practically automatic series of the greatest possible length can we release consciousness for the performance of functions that never can become automatic. Before closing this sketch of the development of habit in spelling, we should perhaps observe that Universality of tne principles mentioned apply in the principle many fields of work. As the eye of the musician becomes trained, it takes in a constantly increasing number of notes at a single "pulse" of attention. The typist progresses from a mastery of literal, through syllabic and verbal, to phrase unities. But the evidence gained from the learning of telegraphy is the most con- crete and convincing of all. The curve of improve- ment of students of this art and their personal tes- timony as regards both sending and receiving, show that the succession of clicks which indicate a letter is at first their problem. Later, they begin to think of the word transmitted. Finally they send and interpret in phrases, and cease to attend to separate clicks. Moreover, between each of these stages there is almost invariably a more or less extended period of no apparent improvement. To resume in the matter of the difference in efficiency between contextual and isolated spelling, Lack of transfer it is apparent that a pupil will unavoidable generally spell more accurately in column, even though his entire training has been 92 THE CfrlLD AND HIS SPELLING on contextual spelling. Spelling of long and diffi- cult words especially demands so much conscious attention that in the third stage of mastery they will be executed incorrectly more often in context- ual than in column spelling; while the number of lapses in words in the fourth stage of mastery will always be greater in the former than in the latter mode of spelling. Since spelling is not usually recognized as a stan- dard high-school subject, and since many defective spellers are annually promoted Conclusion . . . , into our high schools, it has be- come customary to give all freshmen a spelling test (in column, of course) at the earliest practicable date. Those who are not able to make a certain grade on this test are assigned to the "spelling hospital," as some have termed it, where they lan- guish until they prove able to meet certain require- ments. The most common prerequisite for discharge from the "hospital" is the attainment of a certain grade in the spelling lessons for the term. Colleges and universities very often honor similar customs by observing them. Promotions from year to year in the elementary school depend on the "averages" shown by the "spelling blank" and possibly the pass- ing of the "final," which consists of fifty to a hundred words. A better method would be to base decisions in these matters on the showing a student makes in the written papers he submits in all his COLUMN VERSUS CONTEXT 93 work. It will be granted certainly that the proof of spelling efficiency is found in correct writing of words in their usual contextual relation. Words should not be left until this can be done; it is the clenching of the whole process. METHODS OF PRESENTATION VARIOUS studies have recently been made by American, French and German psychologists of the relation between presentation and memoriza- Variance of tion.* All sorts of materials have opinions fo^ use d. - Most of the tests have been made on only a few subjects, and the conclusions have been conflicting to some extent. This might have been predicted for several reasons. Learning to spell involves association between sounds and letters in all 'the phonetic combinations; second, it involves pure memorizing in the case of non-phonetic combinations, such as those containing silent letters or elided vowels; third, it involves relatively permanent retention, which is a very dif- ferent thing from immediate recall in all learning processes, as was seen in a discussion of this mat- ter in Chapter IV. The different experimenters have used materials which varied in these respects. If the foreign pronunciation is used, learning to * The work in this field has been reviewed by Henmon, The Relation Between Mode of Presentation and Retention, Psy- chological Review, XIX, 79-96. See also Burnham, The Hygiene and Psychology of Spelling, Pedagogical Seminary, XIII, 474. 94 METHODS OF PRESENTATION 95 spell foreign words evidently violates the rules of phonics already familiar to the pupil; but if he be permitted to formulate his own rules of phonics for an exercise, the non-phonetic element disappears, thus introducing a wholly artificial situation as far as English spelling is concerned. Nonsense sylla- bles are all phonetic, and nouns and numbers are learned without the operation of the phonic element, the associations consisting of quite vivid imagery entirely aside from the visual form or the sound of the words memorized. Then, too, many of the experimenters measured only immediate recall. While all of these activities are more or less similar to spelling, none of them, therefore, is spelling. The study of this problem, as stated in Chapter IV, was the first one designed to be taken up with the group of four pupils men- Plan of the work . _ tioned above. But since the first experiment developed in another direction, it now became necessary to plan a new start. The third experiment with the boys is representative of the type of work that must be done over and over again in order to answer the question of retention and recall as related to mode of presentation in spelling. A series of sixteen lessons was given by four different methods, each method being employed four times. The four types of presentation oc- curred in an invariable order, so that no particular type came always on the same day of the week. Absence of one pupil or another resulted in ex- 96 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING tending the sixteen lessons over twenty-four school- days. The lesson studied each day was written at the close of that day's exercise, and mistakes were corrected before adjournment. The ordinary period for studying and writing a lesson was be- tween twenty-five and thirty minutes. The words were selected just as they came in a certain mod- ern speller. On the eleventh and twelfth days after the last lesson was presented, the whole list was spelled in column. The ten words for each day were always written on the board in syllables, and with the accent Four types of marked ; a brief definition was presentation p ut a ft e r each; the experimenter pronounced the list, and had each boy pronounce it after him. So far all lessons were uniform in presentation, but thereafter they began to diverge. On one day the boys wrote at the board, while the next day they memorized the words at their seats* This method gave an opportunity to test graphic versus oral methods of study. Then for half of the lessons studied both graphically and orally, the words were written or spoken in sentences only, and so written on the test at the close of the hour. During the rest of the time isolated words were studied, and they were written in column as the test for the day. So the four types of study might be termed graphic-contextual, graphic-column, oral- contextual and oral -column. The class was not so well pleased with the contextual as with the column METHODS OF PRESENTATION 97 lessons. Often they would ask "We don't have to write them in sentences to-day, do we?" The contextual work seemed to conflict with their idea of studying spelling, and there is no doubt it ran in opposition to their school "spelling habit." Con- sequently a boy would sometimes be observed prac- tising on the test word contained in a given sen- tence, instead of writing the sentences as given him. The boys' dislike for this sort of work made the experimenter feel that the contextual method did not get a fair trial. This shows, for one thing, how wide is the gap in the mind of the typical boy between learning and using spelling. In Table XII is shown the number of errors on both the daily tests and the final test. TABLE XII DAILY TESTS Lesson type Lesson type Graphic Oral Contextual Column Contextual Column Total Pupil A 3 .. .. .. 3 Pupil B 6 : . 5 1 12 Pupil C 1 .. 2 2 5 Pupil D 4 .. 1 .. 5 Total 14 8 3 25 FINAL TEST Pupil A 24 31 25 19 99 Pupil B 9 8 12 12 41 Pupil C 6 11 6 10 33 Pupil D 9 12 11 10 42 Total . . 48 62 54 51 215 98 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING The astonishing increase of errors on the final test may be thought to demonstrate that all the Effectiveness of teaching had been ineffective. It the training ma y b e sa {^ ma ^ the group if given the final test without preliminary training would scarcely have missed a greater proportion of the one hundred sixty words. But there are at least two reasons for believing that the training had a beneficial effect. In the first place, a large number of words shown by the experimenter's diary to have given trouble in the daily study were spelled cor- rectly on the daily tests, and many of them were still spelled correctly on the final test. The influence of the immediate correction of errors also was evident, since of the twenty-five words missed on the daily tests only fifteen were missed by the same persons on the final test, and of these fifteen only one was mis- spelled the same way both times. Comparing now the results of daily and final tests, we find that the efficiency of the different types of Comparison presentation in the daily tests is of methods almost exactly the reverse of that in the final test. The graphic-contextual type changes from fourth to first place, and the graphic- oral from first to fourth place. In the daily tests the contextual appears inferior to the column method in the ratio of twenty-two to three errors. But this large number of errors in the graphic- contextual and oral-contextual should hardly be re- garded as the inevitable accompaniment of context- METHODS OF PRESENTATION 99 ual spelling, because no such striking relation was shown in the experiments described in the previous chapter, and because the class recognized clearly in the context the words on which they had been drilled, and doubtless wrote them with all the care usually taken with words in isolation. Their care- lessness in the study of the contextual lesson must have been the cause of the errors. However, on the final test the contextual presentation was slightly superior. The reason for the "slump" on the final test is not far to seek. It seems plain that intensive study of ten fairly difficult words, terminating in prac- tically perfect immediate recall, is no criterion of real learning for spelling purposes. The pupil holds the words for the moment almost as in a memory span, and is tested on his receptivity rather than his retentivity. Yet a large part of all spelling work in the schools is apparently of this snap-shot order. Thus the boy A is an excellent speller in the spelling class, but not elsewhere. All the ex- periments show it, and his teacher confirms it.* The other boys show the same tendency, but not so markedly. Two weeks seem a sufficiently long period for pupils to lose a spelling lesson as fully *One of the writers often thinks of the German girl in a district school who exceeded him in "headmarks" in the course of the term. But on examination day his turn came. The artificial daily superiority of his competitor had vanished, and he counted two or three "headmarks" in a single recita- tion while she shed bitter tears. ioo THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING as they are likely to lose it in a much longer time. Such a view is upheld by the division of the lessons shown in Table XIII, in which it is shown that the final test occurred from forty-five to forty-nine days after the original presentation of lessons one to forty words comprising ed twenty-seven on the ; and so on with all the I XIII &-12 inclusive 13-16 inclusive 1- 8 inclusive 9-16 inclusive 1-28 12-19 -49 12-28 ERRORS D Tool 27 31 18 23 58 41 10 13 12 6 23 18 7 7 13 6 14 19 6 14 11 11 20 22 50 65 54 46 115 100 It is evident that the method of presentation is not the determining factor, but that it is subordi- nate to the vital element of time. This problem is doubtless to be solved by the proper use of the review. The oral presentation showed temporary results in its favor, and retained on the final count also the _. . slender advantage of one hundred Processes in graphic and five to one hundred ten. But an analysis of results indicates that the superiority of the oral over the graphic is an in- METHODS OF PRESENTATION 101 dividual matter rather than a general one. For A the oral is far better ; for B the graphic clearly excels ; for C and D there seems to be no choice. This does not consider the visual element; for provided the study is from script, the visual factor is the same in both cases. The contrast is between two types of motor activity, the hand-motor and the articulatory, though the auditory element is neces- sarily involved in oral spelling. Some children, however, spell almost constantly with their lips while writing, even when, for purposes of experi- ment, they are forbidden to do so. B does this a great deal. That there may be so small a dif- ference between the actual processes in oral and written spelling has not been generally recognized. All investigations of absolutely pure types of pres- entation have interest only for the psychologist; for the teacher they have little significance, since apparently no child will ever use a pure type in study unless blindfolded, bound or gagged. The point that has been urged in favor of the oral method is the fact that an error is detected Advantages of as soon as made, a point which each method our discussion thus far has more than once emphasized. This advantage can not be gained in written spelling except when there is ade- quate and careful supervision of study. We have already said, however, that written spelling is the final test of spelling efficiency, and it is certain that there is not full transfer from oral to written 102 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING ability to spell. It may further be said to the disad- vantage of oral spelling that it confines the pupil practically to the column as against the contextual method. It should not be forgotten that in neither the graphic nor the oral methods of teaching spelling is Showing a pupil it certain that a child will on his his error own initiative become conscious of his errors and remove them. The boys in these ex- periments proved this repeatedly. When one boy misspelled a word orally and another spelled it cor- rectly after him, the first often could not state what his error was or even where it was. When one on being asked to respell a word missed at first spelled it correctly, he could not tell what was the trouble with his first spelling. When a word was written incorrectly, by accident perhaps, and the writer of it and others who had written it cor- rectly were called upon to locate the error, they were exceedingly slow in finding it, or they failed altogether. This was probably due to the fact that they examined the word as a whole, just as adults do in reading. The only sure way for a pupil to correct an error V is for him to do the thing himself, under guidance when necessary. Too much- of our attempted cor- rection of spelling errors has been based on the as- sumption that one pupil, or perhaps the teacher, can correct the errors of another pupil. One can correct only one's own errors, not those of another. In writ- METHODS OF PRESENTATION 103 ten spelling, teachers ought to require that each pupil should correct his own error by rewriting the word correctly from the first. Errors in oral spell- ing must be treated in the same way. Pupils, too, should always show where their errors lie; but it is not insisted that they should reproduce the in- correct forms. By the exercise of care in certain directions, it should be possible to utilize oral spell- ing occasionally all the way up through the grades. It may release erroneous associations without de- lay, break the monotony of the written lesson, and become a device for the arousing of some healthy rivalry of a kind that does not always impress one as he views the class writing its lesson. CHAPTER VII SPELLING EFFICIENCY AND COMPOSITION IT has been more or less generally believed that spelling ability bears a direct relation to the quality and the quantity of one's writing. To ascertain the relation between spelling and com- position, a concluding experiment was undertaken with C and D. Facility in composition was held out as the aim of the work, in order to insure free- dom on the part of the boys, and to eliminate the effect which the personality of the experimenter might have on the subjects' consciousness of spell- ing. For eight days the boys were met a half -hour each morning, and six compositions were prepared, Plan of the the topics being "Boating on Lake work Mendota," "Fishing Around Madison," "Coasting in Our Town," "Other Win- ter Sports" (principally skating, snowballing and hockey), "How I Spent the Fourth" (of July), and "Our Trip to Colorado." These boys had grown up in the hilly city of Madison, which is surrounded by lakes; their own home is on the shore of Lake Mendota ; and their experiences had 104 COMPOSITION 105 been much the same. The composition on the "Fourth" was written July tenth, so all details were still fresh in their minds. The trip to Colorado had been taken by both boys together the preceding summer. Each boy said more than once that his subject was larger than he could exhaust in the given time. To reduce the delay in getting started in writing, and to increase spontaneity, there was a brief discussion of each topic in advance; and this resulted in a short outline being placed on the board. To illustrate: in the first composition the writers were urged to put themselves in the place of a boy living in a flat prairie country at a distance from any body of water, except the creek or com- munity "swimming hole," and to describe all those things very; familiar to them, but new and interest- ing to the imaginary correspondent. They were directed also to describe the different kinds of boats on Mendota, the structure and motive power, and the advantages and disadvantages of each for spe- cial purposes. The following tables show certain facts with re- gard to the six compositions. In the first two col- The data umns of Table XIV are given the gathered total number of words in each composition. In the second two appear the addi- tions to the vocabulary previously employed by each writer in this series of compositions. Columns V and VI were secured by dividing Columns III and IV by Columns I and II respectively, and multiply- io6 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING ing the result by one hundred. Thus they represent the addition per hundred running words of com- position to the vocabulary previously used in this series. The top figure in Columns III-VI inclusive is high, of course, because no words whatever are left out of consideration. In the other figures the common words already used are eliminated, and the effect is steadily intensified. TABLE XIV AMOUNT OF COMPOSITION VERSUS BREADTH OP VOCABULARY Composition Running words Addition to vocab- ulary previously employed Addition per 100 run. ning words to vocab. previously employed C | D C D C D First 141 127 137 181 116 199 199 132 143 370 327 421 66 43 28 52 37 37 77 42 38 92 67 77 47 34 20 29 32 19 39 32 27 25 20 18 Second . . . Third Fourth*.. . Fifth Sixth* .... Total... 901 1592 263 393 29 25 In Table XV an attempt has been made to com- pare accuracy in writing with the amount written. In the first column are listed for the entire series the number of mechanical errors, such as omission of words and the use of the wrong word, as a for as * Fifty minutes were given to compositions four and six. In tallying the vocabulary, all forms of a verb were regarded as one word; also both numbers of a noun. All compound words of doubtful unity were reck- oned as two words; likewise all adjectives and the adverbs to which they give rise. All proper names were discarded. COMPOSITION 107 or an, the for them, and other lapses. In Column II the same data are given, but with reference to the length of the compositions. In Column III the total number of genuine misspellings in the compositions is given, followed in Column IV by the relation of misspellings to breadth of vocabulary used. But there may have been a number of lapses included here still, especially when a word did not occur elsewhere in the entire series of compositions to give the writer an opportunity to set himself right. Such is probably the case; otherwise the figures of Columns V and VI would not be so much less than those of Columns III and IV re- spectively. The table can not be derived, of course, without employing the totals of the first four col- umns in Table XIV. TABLE XV AMOUNT OF COMPOSITION AND BREADTH OF VOCAB- ULARY IN RELATION TO LAPSES AND MISSPELLINGS Pupi ] Lapses Different words misspelled in compositions Different words misspelled in both the compo- sitions and subse- quent column test ~rt 1 Per 100 running words of comp. r: o H Per 100 words of vocabulary ct 1 Per 100 words of vocabulary C D 18 49 2. 3.08 19 28 7.22* 7.12 5 10 1.90 2.54 * C's slight inferiority here is due to the fact that many of his occa- sional misspellings were probably lapses. Note his marked superiority the rest of the way through the table. io8 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING The first fact to attract the investigator's atten- tion in the course of the tests was the delay of C Organization each day in starting to write. Of of ideas course, D showed some hesitancy, too, a characteristic even of older students when they are called on to write upon any new theme. There is always a preliminary pause for the or- ganization of ideas. But even with previous dis- cussion of the general subjects treated, and ex- hortation "just to tell it right off," this delay in C's case amounted to from five to eight minutes each day. For this reason, the last two topics were chosen with a view to offering a change from description to narration in writing. But the ad- vantage of the change was not evident; the dis- parity between the two boys seemed to be widened. The investigator was confident that when the "Trip to Colorado" was carried over to the second day, C, being right in medias res, would get readily to work ; but the usual pause was observed. This, the first of several factors, will account for from ten to fifteen per cent, of D's broader vocabulary. Again, C, as related in Chapter VIII, was trou- bled by his spelling conscience. In the entire course The spelling of the experiment, D never once conscience asked how to spell a word. He simply wrote it as he thought it ought to be, or, as he once put it, "without doing any thinking at all." This, by the way, has been his attitude throughout. He writes down a word the first way it comes into COMPOSITION 109 his mind, and does not often make a change. C, on the other hand, deliberates and worries over many words, and he can often see two or more ways in which a word may be spelled after he has written it. While C spends time in serious reflection, D goes swiftly along expressing his thoughts without much regard to spelling. A third factor which interfered with C's writing was his attention to good form and exactness of Attention to statement. He would object, for technique instance, to saying two feet if three would seem to be nearer the truth. But though D did not bother about exactness, still his state- ments appeared to be just as exact as C's> possibly because he had a better command of number, or more vivid imagery. The best proof that D did not stop to consider these matters was his failure to ask questions of the investigator, which C often did. C in oral expression showed the same ten- dency to consider carefully before he spoke. When- ever he made an error in his composition or formed a letter wrongly, he had to erase; but D would write the correct form over the incorrect with little regard for appearances. At the close of the ex- periment, each boy was asked to write in his ex- ercise book, "This is my best handwriting." This effort, contrasted with the legibility of their general writing, made it plain that C executed up to his standard more closely than did D. D's composi- tions would be illegible in high degree, if one should i io THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING try to make out isolated words, while C's were perfectly and easily legible. Another factor closely connected with the last one mentioned is writing tempo. Copies of a sim- Rapidity of P^ e extract from Stanley's Trav- wntm els in Africa were given the boys, and they were directed to copy it for twenty-five minutes as fast as the requirements of legibility would warrant. The quality of writing submitted by the boys on this occasion was much the same as that appearing in their compositions; but the words on the average were considerably longer. C copied two hundred eleven words and D two hun- dred ninety-one words in the twenty-five minutes. It does not seem probable that in any composition period, C ever wrote over half as many words as he could have copied; but D did somewhat better. Probably neither would have felt in his composi- tion writing the limitation of his speed in hand- writing, except for the lack of automatism in spelling. In actual spelling efficiency, as noted in this test and numerous others, C is plainly superior to D, The results whether the method be oral or summarized written, isolated or contextual. D's errors are from twenty-five to one hundred per cent, more frequent. D wrote seventy-five per cent, more than C in a given period of time, and used a vocabulary about fifty per cent, richer. If we take the first nine hundred running words COMPOSITION ill of D's compositions, we find a vocabulary of just four words less than the total for C, though the latter has the advantage of one more subject in such a reckoning. D is far superior in both facility and variety of expression. There also appears to be greater initiative, individuality and life in his work, greater sincerity in his treatment of a theme, more of concrete statement, and more interest felt by the writer in what he writes. In respect to form alone is he inferior to C. It therefore does not appear, so far as C and D are concerned, that actual spelling efficiency is a dominant factor in producing facile and effective writing, or that it introduces variety by enriching the vocabulary. Time lost in organizing ideas, con- sciousness of spelling difficulties and pitfalls, and unnecessary stickling for form and exactness, are far more important forces in determining effective written expression, or the reverse. CHAPTER VIII SOME SPECIAL FACTORS IN SPELLING IT is proposed to bring together in this chapter a number of facts gathered in the entire course of the experiments and not mentioned in the pre- Learning to read cedin S chapters. Incidental to in relation to the collection of the spelling pa- pers and other information which formed the basis of Chapter II, the university and the high-school students were asked to describe the method by which they had learned to read. In- structors were told how to explain the question. The answers were as follows : TABLE XVI Method of learning to read Alphabetic No. of cases Average on spelling test H.S. Univ. H. S. Univ. 32 25 68 85 6 10 65 83 15 9 59 81 4 11 83 89 12 15 56 86 Word or sentence.... Phonic Combination of meth- ods Answers indefinite or lackinc: .. The frequency with which the alphabet is taught at home at an early age, and the combination of 112 SOME SPECIAL FACTORS 113 methods in school may be responsible for the con- fusion and uncertainty in the answers of some of the students. Many older people can sympathize with the one who wrote: "I do not remember how I learned to read. It seems as if I have always known how." To the adult who will take time for introspection, it will be apparent that he does not grasp a new word as a whole, but proceeds analytically from the start. He sees it not as a complex unit but as a compound of essential elements. These he unites to form the word ; but the syllable may be an intervening unity with some. But is this the experience of one who is well advanced in reading before he learns his let- ters ? Will not one so taught always tend to acquire new words as wholes, which may do very well for reading but not for spelling? The troubles en- countered by one who takes an habitually phonetic attitude toward words, most of them so unphonetic as they are in English, are surely very great. What- ever be the best method of teaching reading, we must assume that spelling is going to be hampered by any method which does not train a child at first to see the various letters in a word and to execute them in their proper order regardless of their sounds. The students examined in this investiga- tion who worked from the phonic or the word-sen- tence over to the alphabetic method in reading at an early stage made the best showing of all in their spelling. Their rapid progress in their reading had ii4 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING evidently promoted the acquisition of an effective vocabulary, their sense of phonics had been devel- oped, and they had learned to resolve words into letters. The extent to which fear of making errors affects one in spelling is interesting and important. In the Fear of making group of four boys already re- error8 ferred to, C was much the best speller of the group in the beginning, and he pos- sessed a high degree of self-confidence. But his own mistakes, and the numerous and grotesque ones of his fellows observed by him at every exercise, gradually undermined his assurance, and seemed to interfere with his efficiency. At the last, he was only slightly superior to B and D, in contrast with his marked superiority at the start. In his compositions, he came to ask aid in spelling easier and easier words. One of the writers has felt the same sort of disturbing influence as a result, apparently, of the continued examination and comparison of mis- spellings in the course of the present work. Both C and the experimenter came out of the series of tests injured rather than benefited in their spelling, as far as freedom and self-confidence are concerned. A, B and D did not seem to anticipate trouble as C finally came to. They appeared not to have de- veloped a fear of a misstep that might happen at any time, as C did. A special precaution should be referred to here. Work on the correction of mistakes should be a SOME SPECIAL FACTORS 115 Seeing and hear- matter of individual instruction ing mistakes whenever possible. It is serious enough for one to have to look over his own errors, without having to see those of others. B was peculiarly susceptible to mistakes made in his hear- ing. In his study of a lesson, he might not have any trouble with a given word, but in the test a little later he might produce the same misspelling as that made by another in the study period. Of this trait he seemed wholly unconscious. But in contrast with C, he appeared able to recognize this as a personal weakness, when he was reminded of it, and to labor consciously and efficiently for its eradication. B and C showed that they both often attempted to "reason out" their spelling. They tried to decide Can one reason on e word on the basis of others, out a spelling? saying "It seems as if it would be spelled like this word or this one." B once asked how the order of i and e in a certain word could be remembered. The investigator explained that it was just the reverse of a similar word, and an exception to the rule. D suggested that one ought "just remember it." As a result of this attitude, B and C drew many analogies from other words. B wrote, for example, prcstidge (suggest- ing bridge}, dishartencd (using hart}, inborne (us- ing borne], and holesail (showing double confusion of homonyms). The other boys did the same thing, but to a less extent. n6 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Auditory similarities between words do not appeal to some persons at all, though such similarities are Auditory and prominent with others. B and C visual types would often in a joking way make clever rhymes of the words of the lesson, and others. Any spelling device based on the mean- ing of words did not appeal to B, because he spelled in terms of sound. To illustrate, he spelled frus- trate without the first r. He was shown the differ- ence in the pronunciation of what he had written and what he should have written. The mistake seemed to amuse him greatly, and after class he ran about writing on the board "fuss straight." Few would have thought of such a combination. When some of the class had trouble with the first two syllables of malefactor, it was suggested, in harmony with the meaning of the word, that most malefactors were of the male sex. This device, B pointed out, might lead to mail/actor. Hence he missed malefactor on the final test. To remedy derth, it was suggested that he think of the word made by leaving off d, earth. This stuck by him, because it was based on sound. In respect to audi- tory spelling, A works in contrast to B and C. A never relies on mere sound in spelling, unless the word seems wholly strange and he has nothing but the sound to guide him. Three times each, C and D spelled malign as maline. Although A could not spell the word correctly, he never once omitted the SOME SPECIAL FACTORS 117 g. Unlike B, he never spelled with his lips when he wrote. We must not from this description of differences infer that there are spellers who rely wholly on one sort of imagery. Dominance of No pure types certain types must be recognized, but that is as far as one may go. People frequently talk of Vy?-spellers" and 'Var-spellers." But there was no pure type in the group studied in these experiments. When A spelled weaver for neither and was asked what he had written, he pronounced meauer as any good speller would have done. There is probably no such thing as a strict unphonetic speller. When a word is strange, one will always spell as it "sounds." Again, B and C have both said time and again that "it doesn't look right." One of the writers knows of one peculiar case which must have approximated the pure visual type. A foreign schoolmate who spoke English very well became much interested in spelling, and studied her lessons diligently. If the teacher should pronounce first to her the second word of the lesson, she would probably spell the first. And this was in an oral spelling class. The fact that the class was being conducted according to the auditory-articulatory method did not affect the pupil's exclusive reliance on visual imagery. In Chapter III several typical sources of error were discussed with respect to their cause and fre- n8 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Dominant type quency. Continued work with a of error f ew subjects reveals the fact that the frequency of occurrence of any type of error varies widely for different persons. The disposi- tion of some to rely largely on analogies has been mentioned. Other cases in point are the mistakes due to failure to double a consonant, and those resulting from the unnecessary doubling of a consonant. A, B and C are much more likely to make an error by not doubling the conso- nant than the opposite, while D does just the reverse. A has a way of catching the wrong pronunciation of the word, perhaps leaving out syllables; and he will invert the order of two successive letters in either oral or written spelling. Another failing of his is the frequent interchang- ing of s and c when they have the same sound. The elided vowel is a constant source of difficulty, and made trouble for each member of this group. The old-fashioned oral spelling made a fetish of syllabication, while the new-fashioned written Syllabication spelling in many schools often as an aid ignores syllables completely. Words are written as wholes in the spelling lesson, because they are to function as wholes in actual use in the future. Some of the spelling text-books do not present words syllabicated for study. The useful purposes which syllabication may serve have already been pointed out'; but the question arises whether the visual images of words are not con- SOME SPECIAL FACTORS 119 fused by having the words chopped up into pieces, in which form they will not be used in real life. C did not seem to have any preference in the matter, but there was some complaint from A and B to the effect that words studied orally with the sylla- bles written apart did not look familiar when finally written as wholes. Probably the advantages of syl- labication may be gained without any of its dis- advantages, if the words are presented in syllables, but written at least once as wholes before any test is imposed. For unless he is a pure audile, if there is such a type, the, pupil needs while studying a word to see it as it is finally to appear. In the course of these experiments some effort was directed toward ascertaining the correlation of Traits that make spelling ability with other simple good spellers traits. This was prompted by the desire to discover the cause of A's curious spellings of the more difficult words, and his failures with the more simple ones. It had been suspected that this boy had defective vision, since he had been observed frequently rubbing his eyes. He was strong in all his school work except spelling and oral reading, though his articulation in conversation was defective. An optician had pronounced his vis- ion normal. The Snellen test showed A, C and D to have both eyes of normal acuity, but B's right eye was below normal. The simple test for astigmatism indicated that B has some trouble with his left eye and C some trouble with both. This may assist 120 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING in explaining C's frequent omission of a letter here and there in a word. The "A" test the simple canceling of all A's on a page of letters with the pupil working at maximum speed placed B first, C second and D third, with respect to both speed and accuracy. A was fourth in speed, but ranked between B and C in accuracy. Attention was then directed to the hearing of the boys. A had written in an early lesson inprove for improve. After some questioning it was found that, though the word had long been familiar to him and had been used by him, he had always thought it was inprove. This, coupled with his phonetic pro- nunciation of his misspellings of various new words, suggested that he had some degree of deaf- ness. But in a test with Seashore's audiometer, an instrument for grading very delicately the loud- ness of sounds, he was apparently able to detect a fainter sound than any of the other boys. This was preceded and followed by several tests on ability to discriminate or identify the sound heard. Both letters and simple words were tried' The general result indicated that A's discrimination was only slightly inferior when the proper apperceptive basis was laid. For instance, if it were announced that the choice were to be made from the letters of the alphabet or from a specified list of simple words, he would hold his own ; but if the choice were made from a wide range of simple words, and he were given no cue beforehand, he would fall behind the SOME SPECIAL FACTORS 121 others. Memory span for letters and for words, viz., ability to reproduce accurately a series im- mediately after it is presented, did not vary much between the members of this group not enough to explain spelling differences. In fact, the series of psychological tests on simple traits demonstrated nothing for this group that correlated at all highly with spelling ability, except possibly A's defective auditory discrimination. PART II THE SPELLING VOCABULARY CHAPTER IX POPULAR VIEWS OF SPELLING NEEDS WE may now turn from the problems of learn- ing to spell to the question of what should be taught in spelling. The typical layman, were Present theory ne compelled to select a speller and practise f or his children, would probably give preference to that text which presented word lists composed of the more difficult and unusual terms. Evidence of this may be seen in the keen interest and appreciation shown by many adults in the successful mastery of "hard" words by the young. Within the last few months, observations have been made in different schools with special reference to the word lists of the spelling lessons. A number of lists used for tests or spelling matches in different parts of the country have been collected, and educational literature has been searched for opinions as to what constitutes a fair attainment in spelling for graduates of the elementary school. Public school-teachers and administrators of long experience have been interviewed, and the opinions of university professors engaged in studying the problems of education have been gathered. The 125 126 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING question put to all these persons was: How many words should a child be able to spell when he fin- ishes the eighth grade ? Estimates made by the vari- ous persons mentioned ran all the way from five hundred to fifteen thousand words. The basis for making an estimate was learned in a number of cases. One person said one thou- sand words, because of his conviction that this num- ber is considerably beyond the ability of many eighth-grade pupils as taught at present; and so we should be satisfied with one thousand. Two others gave an answer based on the assumption that one word per day with its inflected forms is as much as a child can learn. Another calculated about twice as many on the principle that a child can learn two words per day. Two men estimated from eight thousand to ten thousand words, one of them on the theory that the child should be able to spell from two-thirds to three-fourths of his reading vo- cabulary, the latter having been calculated by ex- periment. The principle implied in most of these estimates appears to be that a child needs to know the spelling of an enormous number of words, and that it is the duty of the school to have him mas- ter as many as possible. Some fairly close canvass- ing indicates that the average elementary speller contains upward of six thousand words, though there is great variation, as will be seen later. In most of our larger public schools, the spelling-book is supplemented by words selected from the child's POPULAR VIEWS 127 regular studies. A rough estimate of the number of words presented to the typical pupil of a first- class elementary school, for purposes of spelling, gives from eight thousand to ten thousand. It should be added that those school men who said that four thousand words or less would be a rea- sonable requirement had nevertheless made a prac- tise of using in the schools under their supervision spellers containing the usual number of words. This is merely an additional indication of the lack of a critical attitude toward the problem. Before proceeding to any examination or criti- cism of the content of these long spelling lists, it Purpose of mav be said that the purpose of spelling teaching spelling should be to give the pupil the ability to write readily such words as he may have occasion to use in the typical sit- uations of real life. We should keep clearly dis- tinct at all times the three sorts of vocabularies the reading, writing and oral vocabularies. Now, spelling relates to the mastery of the second of these the writing vocabulary. Some reader may be inclined to hold that it is of value for a person to know how to spell all the words of his reading vocabulary. This would assuredly be true if there were any necessary connection between knowing how to spell a word, and recognizing that word when again presented, or recalling its significance. But there is no evidence to show that such a con- nection exists; indeed, plenty of evidence to the 128 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING contrary can be gained by any observant teacher any day in the schoolroom. For example, every experienced teacher knows well the con- stant struggle which is necessary to prevent children learning glibly the spelling of many words which mean nothing to them, while poor spellers often have no trouble in getting the meaning of the words of their text-books. Many people, too, become intelligent readers of a for- eign language without learning its spelling to any extent. As to the oral vocabulary, it is no doubt much nearer the writing vocabulary in scope than is the reading vocabulary. But it is perfectly obvious that efficiency in the oral use of a word does not arise from a knowledge of its spelling. It is possibly true that if an individual mispronounces a word he will be helped sometimes if he be given its spelling; but if the word be unphonetic, and the spelling be impressed upon him, he is more likely to be hindered than helped in its pronunciation. It is sometimes asked whether the brief focusing of a child's attention on the spelling of a word, even though he does not halt long enough thor- oughly to master it, may not help in transferring it from his reading to his oral vocabulary. There are probably but two factors that determine the effective adoption of a word into one's oral vo- cabulary. They are the content and the pronun- ciation of the word. The content, however, must POPULAR VIEWS 129 come, not from the mechanical arrangement of the letters to form the word, or its spelling, but from its relation to other familiar words in the context. The pronunciation may be gained by the child from his knowledge of phonics, or it may come by imi- tating the pronunciation of another person. But attention given to the literal elements of a word in order to make out its correct pronunciation will ordinarily fall short of what is necessary in order to insure its correct spelling, except in the case of words so thoroughly phonetic that neither spelling nor pronunciation is at all difficult. Before the child can fluently use a word orally, he must grow accustomed to its sound as a whole, by hearing others pronounce it, and by pronouncing it him- self, first in reading, then in conversation, so that he may come to feel at home with the word. The foregoing statement of the purpose of teach- ing spelling should not be let pass without an addi- T .. . tional word of explanation or Immediate versus ultimate values qualification. By "words which the pupil will have occasion to write in the typical situations of real life," is meant only those which he will have need for after his school-days are over. The proper names found in Scott's Lady of the Lake and in the early chapters of United States history were a part of the spelling work in one class room which the investigator vis- ited, yet none of the names in the list, with the exception of a few Christian names, is likely ever 130 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING to be written by more than five per cent, of the members of that class in later life. Practically all of the comparatively few who will make use of these words are those who will continue their study along special lines, or who will enter teaching. When the instructor of this class was asked re- garding the motive in this work, she remarked, with some show of surprise at such a question, that "otherwise the class would not spell accurately in their papers on United States history and the writ- ten language work based on the Lady of the Lake." Now there is no support for the notion that appre- ciation of either history or literature is in any way linked up with the spelling of the proper names in- volved ; indeed there is much evidence on the other side. One of the chief dangers in the "incidental" teaching of spelling is to be found in the disposi- tion to bring in more or less technical terms from the various studies, as in the case of history and literature. Of course, no one would countenance the conscious misspelling of any words by pupils. It would be advisable for them to come to feel that any word, no matter how rare, should be spelled correctly. On the other hand, the teacher should give the children the privilege of using the diction- ary, or should inform them outright of the spelling of infrequent words, instead of including such in the regular spelling lists. Let us now turn to a consideration of the lists of words found in spelling text-books. While every POPULAR VIEWS 131 Pruning one is likely to agree to the gen- word hsts era j roosition t h at such lists as are at present taught contain some useless words, there is still a lack of agreement as to what should be omitted. For instance, a distinguished educator has recently said "I have on file a very carefully selected list of twenty thousand words, no one of which a grammar-school graduate should miss. . . . It includes only forty-five salt and fresh water fishes." He is apparently counting as separate words all standard variations of the various parts of speech, except those adding s, so his list would probably shrink to sixteen thousand or seventeen thousand words if reduced to a dictionary basis by eliminating all these standard variations. Yet it is to some inconceivable that a grammar-school graduate will ever write the names of forty-five fishes, unless he becomes a catcher or raiser of fish, or an ichthyologist. What about the millions of our people who live far from the seas and the lakes? The same author writes a little later, "A good standard dictionary to-day contains over four hundred thousand words, not counting plurals of nouns and other standard variations. Of these a quarter would be useful to average men if they could learn them, which is, however, obviously im- possible." We can not but regard this number of words as altogether beyond reason. One hundred thousand words useful to the "average" man! Shakespeare appealed to all sorts of men, irrespec- 132 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING tive of race, with only fifteen thousand; and Milton with a modest eight thousand was able to express himself in a wide range of literature of permanent value. Life, to be sure, is more complex to-day than ever before; but the limits of the ordinary man's mind still are set, and year by year increas- ing specialization decreases the range within which a modern man must make his adjustments. In addition to this, one may be led to very erroneous conclusions by comparing an "average" man of the twentieth century or any other time, with the Mil- tons or the Shakespeares who have played so promi- nent a role in building our language. There are two fundamental objections, implicit or explicit, that one will meet in attempting to cut down our spelling lists. The first Reasons for op- ,, j , position to cur- 1S the exaggerated notion, just tailment of vo- alluded to, of the use an "aver- cabulary age" man has for a big vocabu- lary. This arises partly from the fact that in pass- ing on the eligibility of a word for a place in the spelling lists of an elementary school, one almost habitually bases his judgment upon his feeling as to whether he personally has ever used that word in written communication. This is not to be wondered at, since to each of us our own experi- ence is easily accessible, and that of others is usually remote or unknown. The second difficulty encountered in pruning word lists lies in the prevailing domination of our POPULAR VIEWS 133 elementary by our secondary schools, and our sec- ondary by our higher institutions. Each higher institution has felt justified, until very recently at least, in prescribing for the lower school the sub- ject-matter which is thought necessary to prepare a small portion of its membership for the superior school. The new movement to make courses of study adapted to the needs of the majority rather than the minority of pupils in the schools has thus far had no effect worth noting on spelling. In the pursuit of an inquiry relative to the spelling needs of elementary-school pupils, the writers have met with such suggestions as that they should cover the corre- spondence of an ex-senator, or study a newspaper of national reputation, whose columns are filled by highly trained writers. An intelligent lady argued tenaciously that the term Mukden (of recent military significance) should be taught be- cause the child "may have to write it some time." No one has proposed that Cherokee or Apache, or even Spanish, Igorrote, Chinese or Hindu be made a compulsory study in the elementary school be- cause some of the children may become interpreters or missionaries; yet the probability of the latter is surely much greater than that a considerable num- ber of future United States senators, metropolitan newspaper correspondents, or writers of world his- tory are sitting in every schoolroom in the land. Of course, in all education of whatever grade, we must take some chances. If one be given a 134 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING special education he may prove a misfit, and may harm rather than help society ; or the child or youth may die before he reaches his productive years, thus entailing not only a heavy family loss, but a large social one as well. On the sociological side, at any rate, education can never become an exact science. There is nothing we can teach a child and be certain that it will function later. The best we can do is to select our materials in such a way that there will be a high degree of proba- bility that they will all be of service in the later life of nearly all the pupils. This is the more true since one hears constantly the complaint that the program of study is overcrowded, and that many subjects really worth while have to be omitted. No one of special vocational or professional aptitude or inclination should ask to have the course for all distorted in order to minister to his peculiar needs. But if it becomes apparent that a large percentage of the pupils of a school are destined to enter a par- ticular calling, classes may be formed for instruc- tion in the essentials of this special business; and among those essentials may well be included the spelling of a number of technical words relating to this calling. CHAPTER X DETERMINING THE WRITTEN VOCABULARY OF TYPI- CAL AMERICANS HAVING in view the matters discussed in the last chapter, the writers have undertaken an investigation of the spelling needs of American An experimental children. Not many attempts of study of spelling this character have yet been made; but recently a survey was made of the word list employed in the issues of several Buffalo Sunday papers.* It was discov- ered that in about forty-four thousand running words of composition taken from the newspapers in question, about six thousand different words and forms of words were used. This number would shrink perhaps a thousand or more if reduced to a dictionary basis, as already defined. The astound- ing fact appeared that seven words constituted over one- fourth of the whole number. Chancellor at- tempted to ascertain from a number of letters that came to his desk the one thousand most important words.f This when reduced to a dictionary basis * Eldridge, Six Thousand Common English Words. Ni- agara Falls, N. Y. t Journal of Education, May 26, 1910. 135 T 36 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING \ shrinks to eight hundred eighty-three words. No de- tailed statement, however, is made as to the manner in which the study was conducted, or as to the busi- ness and education of the correspondents. The list is not arranged in a strictly alphabetical order, consequently about a dozen words are repeated. No note is made of the comparative frequency of the different words, so that one is left in doubt as to whether frequency was actually studied at all. An interesting study of this matter was made recently by the Russell Sage Foundation.* The , , results were published in Febru- Ayres study of spelling ary, 1913, within about a week vocabularies of the time that ^ writers con . eluded, the task of tallying the frequency of occur- rence of all words in over two hundred thousand running words of correspondence according to a method to be described presently. Doctor Ayres se- lected the first word of each line in two thousand letters chosen from a variety of sources. In this way twenty-three thousand six hundred twenty-nine words were tallied out of a total of one hundred ten thousand one hundred sixty. The total number of different words and different forms of words oc- curring one or more times was found to be two thousand one. Of these, the five hundred forty- two occurring six or more times were published in the order of their frequency. Seven hundred fifty- * Ayres, The Spelling Vocabularies of Personal and Busi- ness Letters. THE WRITTEN VOCABULARY 137 one of the two thousand one occurred but a single time. Although the present study is in sev- eral respects different from that of Ayres, his data will be used as a check and basis of comparison at a number of points. In searching for a standard to employ in esti- mating the writing vocabularies of typical individu- als in American life, and in dis- How to find the . . needs of the "com- covering what words are found mon people" most common i y j n t he written ex- pression of ordinary people, it was finally decided to use the family correspondence of a group of adults. It would be a safe guess, probably, to say that most of the spelling needs of nine-tenths of our people relate to correspondence of a varied nature with relatives and friends. Ordinary business corre- spondence is attended to by stenographers, or is almost a negligible quantity as far as spelling is concerned. It is moreover of a stereotyped and usually quite technical character. For every kind of business and for every profession there are spe- cial needs; but in these we are not interested, since it is spelling for the common school that we are considering. It is likely that Ayres' lists do not quite indicate the needs of most people, because it is probable that in his study family correspondence was neglected, to the exaggeration of the import- ance of business letters. Sincerely shows a fre- quency of one hundred forty-two, truly of one hun- dred sixty-six, respectfully of sixty-three and love 138 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING of only sixteen. Since the average length of the letters examined was only fifty-five words, surely no great proportion could have been of a family character, and only a very few could have dealt with the "tender emotion." In the present investigation it was determined not to include a large amount of correspondence between particular friends, because they often have only a single line of interest. The vocabulary of such correspondence would therefore tend to be highly specialized. For a like reason, the corre- spondence of immature persons has not been used in this study to any great extent. The child's interests are not those of an adult. Many of the responsibilities of the latter are not felt until one's majority is reached. No doubt the framing of a course in spelling for elementary pupils should in- clude a number of words which an examination of the spontaneous compositions of children of differ- ent ages shows to be useful in child life, but which plays only a small part in the average adult's con- sciousness. This matter is discussed fully later on. But after all it is family letters that tend more than any other form of correspondence to call out a vocabulary dealing with the whole range of hu- man interests. Family correspondence is not open to the usual valid objection to composition tests of spelling, viz., that the writer avoids some words, the spelling of which is uncertain, and selects others whose spelling is known. The errors which the THE WRITTEN VOCABULARY 139 investigators found in much of the correspondence examined were not calculated to betray reserve or embarrassment over spelling. When a word was needed, the correspondent proceeded to spell at it, if it were unfamiliar. On the other hand, there is in adult family correspondence no endeavor to diversify one's vocabulary for the production of special literary effects, such as characterizes all writing for publication, and renders it valueless for our present purpose. In collecting the material for investigation, the conclusion has been reached that spelling has dis- tinctly declined in importance in Declining im- portance of the last generation, and is still declining. It is entirely possible that if the present tendency continues for another century, the spelling reformers and their opponents will have only a skeleton to fight over. This result has followed from the decay of letter- writing, which in turn is the result of various social changes. Any one who will take the pains to make personal ob- servations can verify every point that is made here- after relating to the decay of spelling needs. Among the conditions that have produced the changes referred to may be mentioned first the plen- ti fulness of newspapers, magazines and books. Books and magazines supply the intellectual stimu^ lation which the daily, weekly or monthly mail once furnished. Those who migrate to a new home, leaving behind acquaintances, friends and relatives, 140 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING often have the local paper follow them at a nominal cost. Or if they do not subscribe, the "home- folks" bundle up the papers occasionally and forward them, naturally without writing, because that would en- tail additional expense for postage. Those in the new home may not send their own local papers regularly to the "home- f oiks" ; but any items of special interest they clip out and enclose in a letter. Or if anything in the way of a story or witticism impresses them as unusually good, it is cut out and sent along too. The clippings often constitute the bulk of the letter. In the second place, there is vast improvement and greater freedom in means of communication. Postal rates have been lowered, not for first-class matter only, but for all classes of mailable matter. The use of telegraph and telephone is coming within the reach of more and more people. With- out cost, or for a few cents at most, people can telephone some distance across country or from town to town, transact business, or reach decisions that by correspondence would require several let- ters. Travel is increasing out of all proportion to population. Annual vacations, holiday rates and all sorts of excursions are substituting visiting and personal conference for letter-writing. Friends a hundred miles or two apart may not write for months; but once or twice a year they may come together and visit over their joys and sorrows. Again, the changing status of women in the home THE WRITTEN VOCABULARY 141 and new business methods, are shifting the burden of letter-writing. Though the mother was in the early days the teacher and intellectual leader of the family, her other responsibilities were much heavier than to-day. She no longer goes into the fields to work; much of the family raiment is purchased ready-made; and more or less of the food is pre- pared outside of the home. With these changes, women have become to some extent a leisure class. They still do most of the reading and practically all of the writing for the family. A rather ex- tensive inquiry among friends and acquaintances has shown it to be impossible to secure more than perhaps one-tenth as much written matter in gen- eral from the pens of men as from those of women. In this inquiry, households were found where men, perfectly able to write, do not, from pure disin- clination to undertake the task, produce a letter from one year's end to the other. They confine themselves to signing legal papers. Professional men, possibly from their greater facility in expres- sion, are less derelict in this connection. Yet as many of them as can afford it are known by sten- ographers to dictate much of their most private correspondence as well as their business letters. In these times a scholar can write a book without doing any spelling himself. Lastly, the development of the post-card as a means of communication has proved highly destruc- tive of letter-writing. Special cards are issued for 142 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter and so on. At such times it is the custom to "remember everybody." If the intervals are unduly long, the "remembrance" comes to hand in the form of some local view or comic card. The most novel and extreme form is the short letter already written for the correspond- ent. "Arrived at Kalamazoo on the . . . inst." The writer fills in the date. Then follow a number of statements, such as "Like the town," "Am well," "Having a good time," "The boys (or girls) are good-lookers," "Remember me to the rest." After each statement is a place for "Yes" or "No," or check for "Yes," leaving the other spaces blank. Many people, of course, are bound to be seriously disturbed at any movement that would tend to limit No imminent dan- a P 6 " 011 ' 8 knowledge of spelling ger of hampering to the demonstrated demands of those living a generation ahead of him. It will be asserted that if the art of written expression is on the decline, we should strive to train our children in the opposite direction, and not hamper them by reducing their writing vocab- ulary. All such persons should recall the fact that the decline of letter-writing is traceable to social factors, as has been shown. In no sense has it resulted from teaching the spelling of too few words. The truth of the whole matter is that every one who has finished the elementary school is carrying around in his head for years afterward THE WRITTEN VOCABULARY 143 hundreds, if not thousands, of words that he never writes. And is it not possible that the learning of these words extracted from his short school-days valuable time which should have been devoted to really vital instruction that he failed to get because there was "not enough time" ? Moreover, this large expenditure of time and energy in learning to spell has not apparently produced good spellers. If we want good spelling, shall we not put the pressure on the most vital words, instead of on the less vital, or non-vital ones? Suppose that by a restriction of spelling lists a child should later find himself hampered with ref- erence to a few words. They are all in the diction- aries, pocket editions of which are easily secured. Further, why can he not learn to spell a few words after he leaves the elementary school? Why not carry spelling through the high school and even the university if necessary? As a matter of fact all intelligent adults are learning to spell every now and then. Many words commonly written to-day were found twenty years ago in the supplement of the unabridged dictionary. It should be remembered that the business of the common school is to pre- pare children for the life of two decades hence, while school texts, more especially spellers, are apt to reflect the needs of many decades past. CHAPTER XI SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF DATA IT has been the aim in this investigation to study individual needs rather than to secure a com- posite of the vocabularies of many persons, so the Sources of writers confined their request for the data correspondence to a limited num- ber of persons thirteen in all. Five of these per- sons were men and the other eight were women. Various degrees of academic training are repre- sented, ranging from schooling equivalent to three, grades of the present elementary school perhaps, up to a year of graduate work in a state university. Different sorts of interest and vocation are sam- pled in a fairly typical way. That the correspond- ence examined was not local or sectional in its character may be inferred from the statement that it bore not fewer than forty different postmarks from widely separated portions of our own country and from some foreign lands. This variety of en- vironments should be of assistance in gaging de- mands for the spelling of proper names, though travel plays slightly too important a part to make the letters truly typical. Of course, it is under- 144 SOURCES OF DATA 145 stood that no person knew at the time of writing that any of his work was to be utilized in this study. For the sake of completeness and definiteness, the following brief account is given of each of the thirteen persons at the time they produced the let- ters used by the writers : S., fifty-six years of age, mother of a family. Her education was probably equivalent to the course of an ordinary elementary school. She con- tributed twelve thousand running words, written to her adult children and their families. P., daughter of S., aged twenty-seven, mother of a family. Attended high school and took one year of university work. A voluminous letter-writer, accustomed to recount all the details of family life. Contributed forty thousand running words, taken from her letters to her mother, husband, brother and other near relatives. C, husband of P., aged thirty. Had high-school education and completed a technical course at the university, now a civil engineer managing a factory. Contributed five thousand running words, taken in about equal portions from letters to his wife and her relatives on the occasion of a trip to California. W., son of S., brother of P., aged twenty to twenty-five. Graduate in state university, teacher in public high school. Contributed forty thousand running words, written to his wife mainly before, but in part after, marriage. H., wife of W., aged nineteen to twenty-four, I 4 6 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING graduate of elementary school. Contributed forty thousand running words, written to W. mainly be- fore, but in part after, marriage. E., sister of H., aged twenty-seven, graduate of elementary school. Bookkeeper and stenographer. Contributed five thousand running words, written to her mother and sister. N., mother of H. and E., aged sixty-four. Had meager educational opportunities. She says she never finished the third reader. Contributed five thousand words,, written to her daughters. A., aged sixty, mother of a family. Attended the academy of an earlier day, then spent three years in a seminary of good standing, afterward taught for several years. Contributed twenty- four thousand words, written to her sisters from her Connecticut home, later from England, France and Germany. G., aged twenty-five, postgraduate in classical languages in state university of Middle West. Teacher in girls' private school. Contributed five thousand words, written to her mother, mostly with regard to social life and personal matters outside of school. O., aged eighteen, high-school graduate, from a home of unusual intellectual and social opportuni- ties and stimulation. Contributed eight thousand words, written to her parents while at home and away from home. J., aged about forty, lawyer and public man in SOURCES OF DATA 147 a small city. Graduated from state normal school, and spent two years in law school. Contributed six thousand words, written to a public-school su- perintendent, on whose board J. once served. The letters were written before and after the two men had severed their official connections. M., aged about twenty-three, graduate of state normal school, spent one year tutoring at Washing- ton, then became principal of a city elementary school. Contributed five thousand words, written while serving in the two capacities above named. They were addressed to an older brother, also a teacher, but contained little "shop talk." B., aged twenty-eight, spent two years in high school, and then took a course in the business col- lege, is now a bookkeeper and stenographer in a wholesale grocery house. Contributed five thou- sand words, addressed to a brother, along business and personal lines. Another kind of material utilized in this investi- gation came from three spelling-books described below. Their vocabularies were arranged alpha- betically that they might be checked up with the vocabularies of the correspondents, and with one another, in order to discover the underlying prin- ciple, if any were followed, in the selection of ma- terials for the spelling text-books of to-day, and to test readily the validity of such principles by the concrete material derived from the correspond- ence. Two of these spelling texts appeared in 1908, 148 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING and one in 1912. They are published by two lead- ing text-book companies, and one of the books might, perhaps, be considered the most-used ele- mentary spelling-book in the country. These three texts were chosen because it was believed that they exemplified the better, not the poorer, attempts in modern text-book construction. They will here- after be referred to as Spellers A, B and C. Speller A is divided into two books, giving work stated to be for grades III-VIII inclusive. "A large number of English words that present no diffi- culty have been excluded" (Preface). The publishers make the following claim for this book : "Only those words have been admitted which be- long to the writing vocabulary of the average per- son. The many words that are known in reading, but that are seldom if ever used by the average man in writing, have been excluded. Words that pre- sent no spelling difficulty and need no study have also been omitted." Speller B is divided into seven books. Just how it is intended that the work of these should be ad- justed to the eight grades is not stated ; perhaps the most reasonable assumption is that no book is allot- ted to Grade I. The feature of this book is the use in adjacent sentences of the words presented in the column lessons. " About six thousand words, not counting different forms of verbs and nouns, are thus presented in use. Excepting a few of the most simple words used in Books I and II, SOURCES OF DATA 149 no word is used in a sentence before it is given in the column About six thousand more words, classified as 'additional' and 'less common' words are given in columns following the regular sentence presentation" (Preface). Speller C outlines work for the entire elementary course, except the first half of the first year. A large number of dictation and completion exercises are presented. Many of the former are selected from literary masterpieces, and contain large num- bers of more or less uncommon words. A state- ment made in the introduction as to not requiring pupils to learn uncommon words evidently meant that any unusual literary names (those applied to literary characters, not the names of the authors themselves) should be omitted. Everything save directions to pupils has been included in cal- culating the vocabulary of this text. However, in the case of word-building exercises, the words actually found in the book, and not those built by the pupil, have been taken into account. The French and Latin words and phrases are marked in the text, "For reference only." Test lists used in different parts of the country on important spelling occasions would not be of No consideration much value in this investigation. of test lists if judged by the criterion of their frequency of use in after life, they would be found wanting. However, one must not forget that the purpose of these competitions is not normally to 150 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING teach pupils how to spell, but to make them fail to spell, so that the question. of personal superiority can be settled. Hence it is to be expected that comparatively rare words must be drawn in very largely before a decision can be reached. No one can doubt, though, that special test lists for every- day purposes in the regular school work should be graded carefully, that they should consist of words that people often use, and that a pupil's promotion in spelling should depend on his capacity for spell- ing words that he is later to use in expressing him- self. In the arrangement of vocabularies in this in- vestigation, several rules of procedure have been Rules of kept in mind, and followed as procedure consistently as possible. First of all, the dictionary basis has been adhered to. This has resulted in the appearance in every list of nouns in the singular number and nominative case only, though a few plurals appear in cases where the plural is the form habitually employed. The sin- gular of no such word is then permitted in the list. The same policy is followed relative to another group of words, such as news, afterwards, besides, etc. But the various forms of the personal pro- nouns are so highly disparate that all variant forms are included, except ours, yours and theirs. Like- wise only the positive degree of adjectives is in- cluded, except that the comparative or superlative occurs for the few which lack a positive form. So SOURCES OF DATA 151 also of verbs; the present infinitive is considered the root form. To illustrate, for the verb to be, the forms, is, are, was, were, being, been, are al- ways checked as be. The justification for such procedure is, first, that it simplifies the problem; and, second, that an individual who has any real use for a root word will doubtless have also a real use for its inflected forms, though of course some of the derivatives may have a very different fre- quency of use from the root word itself. In the second place, words of identical spelling and like pronunciation are not differentiated in the lists. For instance, might is always referred to may, whether it be the past tense of the latter, or the noun meaning power or strength. As far as dealing with the lists in spelling texts goes, it is impossible to tell, when we see might in a column, whether it is a noun or a verb. Hence we need to act similarly in dealing with correspondence. And while from some points of view it would perhaps be desirable to know whether in spelling we should stress might as a noun or as a verb, it is probable that as long as the phonic elements are the same, if the child learns to spell the word merely as one part of speech, he will spell it correctly in its other forms, barring a homonymic interference. Many simple words, like hoe (noun and verb), pin (noun and verb), etc., come under the principle just men- tioned. In the third place, words of identical spelling but 152 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING dissimilar pronunciation are included but gnce. This, too, was necessitated by the fact that words like grease and canon do not always have their pro- nunciation indicated in the columns of the spelling- book. Difficulty with or confusion in the use of such words can be obviated by teaching them with both their meanings and their appropriate pronun- ciations. This need not often involve the teaching of an uncommon word, or a common word with an uncommon signification, unless the teacher is injudicious enough to go outside his own reading vocabulary. /, a and o have been excluded from consideration, for while they are technically words, they are also mere letters, and the question of spelling obviously does not enter in. All syncopations are entered as though written in full, except the single one, o'clock, which is standard and preferable to the full form on all occasions. A few of the more common apostrophized forms would have been in- cluded, had it been possible to tell where to stop; but I'll leads on to I'd, and you'd, and finally who'd, so all such forms were regarded as if the words had been written in full. In dealing with the correspondence, all abbreviations are treated as if written in full, except Mr., Mrs., etc. and O. K., and the initials of persons. These latter are totally disregarded. The reason is that aside from o'clock, and the abbreviations just mentioned, the knowl- edge of the spelling of a word may be presumed SOURCES OF DATA 153 to have preceded the knowledge of its abbreviation, and for the additional reason, that the abbrevia- tion in all except the most familiar correspondence is not yet recognized as good form. Baby talk is excluded, but large numbers of colloquial ex- pressions, if justified by the dictionary, are in- cluded. The Standard Dictionary has been used in determining the eligibility of such words. Some arbitrary standard had to be recognized in the treatment of numbers, so it was decided to exclude from consideration all dates, all street numbers, all quantities of money expressed in deci- mal fashion, all hours of the day when in the standard form (e.g., 5:45), all numbers over one hundred, except round numbers like a thousand, ten thousand, or a million. Such a course seems advisable, because the exemptions made are properly expressed by figures. All words with hyphens have been considered as two words. Foreign words and expressions scarcely naturalized have been kept in a segregated list in the examination of both spelling texts and corre- spondence. Proper names of every sort have also been segregated into a special list. They are noted as to frequency in all the correspondence, but not considered a part of the vocabulary of any person, since changing associations in the local environment will constantly introduce new names. Consequently proper terms are skipped in counting off the two hundred thousand words of correspondence. Words 154 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING which become proper names only in specific connec- tions, as seen in the expressions, Kansas City, or Franklin Street, and even there retain their general significance, are not considered as proper names. The vocabulary found in the correspondence of each person has been kept entirely separate from The arrangement everything else, so that, as ex- of words plained above, we might gain some view of the extent of individual needs, and, what is still more important from the point of view of the public school, we might examine the general agreement or community of needs. Though the frequency of each word is given in the lists of this study, the words are not arranged ac- cording to frequency because, in the first place, if one examines a "frequency" list one finds it diffi- cult to tell whether a particular word is present, to say nothing of the probability of clerical mis- takes leading to duplications. With Ayres' list no doubt extraordinary care was exercised, yet in the published portions at least three words are repeated, which alters more or less seriously their position in the list. Second, a word which has a given fre- quency and is universally used should be given a more prominent position in the list than one which occurs somewhat more frequently but serves only three- fourths as many persons, showing that its idea is less universalized or permits of ready expression in other ways. In the present study, the word big has almost exactly twice the frequency of busy, SOURCES OF DATA 155 yet it does not occur in the letters of two of the thirteen correspondents, because its idea can be ex- pressed by large. Neither of these two persons is among the three who fail to use large. But busy, for which no ready substitute seems to be offered, is employed by every subject. Illustrations could be multiplied ad libitum. Third, where the corre- spondence of a limited number of persons is studied in detail, as in the present case, the prominence given to a somewhat unusual word by two or even one of the subjects might place it in an entirely false light if frequency were the basis of arrange- ment. CHAPTER XII WORD LISTS DERIVED FROM CORRESPONDENCE THE plan followed in tabulating the data of this investigation has been to divide the total vocabulary of the thirteen correspondents into four The method of alphabetical lists. List I con- classifying data ta j ns W ords used by all the corre- spondents; List II, those used by a majority of them; List III, those used by more than one but less than a majority; List IV, those used by one writer only. Immediately after each word is placed its frequency in the two hundred thousand running words. In the third column is noted how many of the three spelling-books, A, B and C, contain it. In the fourth column stands the list in which the given word comes if only the women corre- spondents be considered. In the fifth column the same information is given from the standpoint of the men correspondents. All vacant spaces in Col- umns III, IV and V signify non-occurrence. In Column VI the letters A and C indicate respectively whether found in Ayres' published list of the five hundred forty-two most frequent words, or in Chan- cellor's list of the thousand most common words 156 WORD LISTS 157 in every-day use. Columns IV and V are omitted in List I, since they would be simply a succession of I's. LIST I 1 86 WORDS WORDS USED BY ALL THE CORRE- SPONDENTS I II. Ill IV about 889 2 AC after 365 2 AC afternoon 389 2 A again 256 3 AC all 1369 2 A almost 153 3 C also 166 3 A an 346 1 AC and 8252 2 AC another 166 2 A any 530 2 AC around 143 2 C as 1368 1 A ask 186 2 A at 1240 1 A away 193 2 A back 299 2 AC be .....9711 2 AC before 361 2 AC boy 171 2 AC build 89 3 AC busy 71 3 AC but 1771 2 AC by 439 2 A can 1190 3 AC cannot 392 1 church 159 2 A come 946 2 AC course 202 3 A day 916 2 AC dear 481 2 AC do 2498 3 AC down 384 AC enough 158 3 A even 360 2 AC ever. . . 222 2 AC 158 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II ill IV every 232 3 C far 96 2 C feel 473 2 AC few 156 2 AC find 217 2 AC first 237 2 A for 2263 1 A four 172 3 AC friend 90 3 AC from 895 1 A get 1667 2 AC give ' 309 2 AC glad 235 2 AC go 1981 1 AC good 837 2 AC guess 128 3 have 4562 3 AC he 1166 2 AC hear 279 3 AC help 224 2 AC her 1061 2 AC here : 613 3 A him 459 1 AC his 441 1 A home 496 2 A hope 259 3 AC hour 170 3 A house 367 3 AC how 433 2 AC if 1050 1 AC in 2511 A it 3607 2 A just 763 2 A keep 205 3 AC know 790 3 AC last 531 2 AC late 102 2 AC leave 348 2 AC let 208 2 AC letter .... 800 2 AC like 553 2 AC little 778 2 AC live 117 3 long 279 2 AC look... 386 2 A make 633 3 AC man 206 2 AC many 314 3 AC WORD LISTS 159 i ii m iv me 1377 1 AC mine 57 2 C morning 478 2 AC much 947 2 AC must 399 1 AC my 1457 2 A need 114 3 AC never 247 2 AC new 220 2 AC next 302 2 AC nice 198 2 AC night 547 2 AC no 335 1 AC not 2878 2 AC nothing 71 2 AC now 489 2 AC of 3252 1 AC off 175 2 AC old 294 2 AC on 1175 1 AC one 1117 2 AC only 419 3 AC or 680 1 A other 344 2 AC ought 97 3 C out 703 2 AC over 427 2 AC own 176 2 C part 109 2 AC pay 168 3 AC people 160 3 AC place 217 2 AC pretty 249 3 A put 254 2 AC quite 159 3 AC rest 125 1 C right 242 3 AC run 101 2 C same 110 1 AC say 906 2 AC see 789 3 AC seven 66 2 C several 56 2 AC she 1542 2 AC show 71 3 AC six 124 2 C BO 1729 1 AC some.. .750 2 AC 160 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II ill IV soon 196 2 AC spend 103 2 C start 143 2 A such 224 2 A suppose 164 2 sure 179 3 A take 535 2 AC talk 149 3 AC tell 669 2 AC than 321 2 AC that 2514 2 AC the 7606 2 AC their 210 3 AC them 636 2 AC then 456 2 AC there 852 3 AC they 925 2 AC thing 414 2 AC think 1178 2 AC this 1236 2 AC though 148 1 AC three 251 2 AC through 160 3 A time 893 2 AC to 7553 2 AC too 408 3 A town 165 2 C train 148 3 AC try 199 3 AC two 501 3 AC up 782 1 AC us 368 2 A use 160 3 AC very 644 3 AC visit 102 3 A want 543 2 A way 271 2 AC we 2218 2 AC week 505 3 AC well 672 2 AC what 479 2 AC when 766 2 AC where 162 2 AC which 255 3 AC while 204 3 A will 3058 3 AC wish 252 2 A with.. ..1314 2 AC WORD LISTS 161 I II III IV write ................................ 867 3 AC year ................................. 254 2 AC yesterday ............................ 317 2 AC yet .................................. 180 2 C you .................................. 4099 1 AC your ................................. 1117 2 AC LIST II 577 WORDS WORDS USED BY A MAJORITY OF THE CORRESPONDENTS i ii in iv r v vi able 100 2 II 1C above 25 2 III I accept 12 3 III I A account 31 2 II I A across 36 3 II 1C act 27 2 III II C add 15 2 III 1C address 35 3 II II A advantage 15 2 III I afraid 79 3 II IV C afterward 12 1 II II against 25 2 III II C age 32 2 II II ago 81 1 II I A ahead 23 2 II II air 21 2 II II allow 18 3 II III A alone 43 3 II III A along 91 1 I II already 45 2 II II C always 153 3 II II AC among 23 3 II II AC amount 28 2 II II answer , 108 3 II II A anxious 29 3 II III anything 190 1 I II A anyway 33 II III appreciate 17 2 III II A arrive 75 2 II I A asleep 20 3 II IV attempt 13 1 II III attend 42 2 III I A aunt 170 3 I II C automobile.. 47 2 II III 162 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI avenue 32 2 II III awful 91 3 II III awfully 26 II III baby 39 2 II III AC bad 244 2 II I AC badly 23 1 II II C bank 30 2 II II C basket 16 3 II III bath 35 2 II III beat 36 3 III II C beautiful 67 3 II II because 263 2 I II A become 36 1 II II A bed 170 2 I II AC begin 97 2 II II AC believe 168 3 II II AC beside 48 2 II III between 40 3 II I big 141 2 II II C bill 38 2 II III C birthday 31 2 I IV bite 67 2 II II black 32 2 II IV C blame 12 2 II III C block 33 2 II II blood 18 2 II III C blow 21 2 II III C blue 43 2 II III C board 125 3 II II AC body 15 1 II III C book 104 2 II II AC both 140 2 II I A bottle 12 3 II bottom 12 3 III II box 95 2 I II A bread 30 3 II IV C break 45 3 I II C breakfast 62 3 I III C bring 91 2 II II C brother 74 3 II II brown 21 2 II III C burn 28 2 II III business 99 2 II I AC butter 22 1 II IV C buy 122 3 II 1C cake 39 2 II IV call 151 2 I II A car.. 77 1 II II C WORD LISTS 163 I II III IV V VI card 95 2 I II A care 119 2 II II C careful 25 3 II II carry 47 2 II II C case 27 2 II II A catch 38 3 II II C cause 25 3 II II AC cent 118 3 II II AC certain 20 3 III II A certainly 71 2 II II chair 36 2 II II C chance 39 2 II II change 86 2 II I AC charge 29 2 II II cheap 22 3 II III cheese 11 3 II IV chicken 25 2 II IV C child 160 3 II II AC chop 11 2 II III city... 77 2 II I A class 74 2 II I A clean 117 2 I II C clear 50 2 II III C clock 10 2 II III close 129 2 II I C cloth 18 3 II clothe 70 2 I III C coat 46 2 II II coffee 24 3 III II cold 167 2 I II AC color 26 3 II II C comfort 16 3 II III comfortable 14 2 II III C common 15 2 III II C company 69 3 I II A compare 13 1 II II concern 11 3 III II condition 21 2 II II continue 11 3 III II cook 36 2 II C cool 41 2 II III copy 19 3 III II A corn 15 2 II III C cost 78 2 II II AC count 24 2 II III C country 36 3 II I AC couple 37 2 II II cover 35 2 II II A 1 64 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI crazy 29 II IV cross 27 2 II III cup 12 2 III II C cure 13 2 II IV cut 81 2 II II dance 38 2 II III dark 36 2 II III C date 24 2 II II AC daughter 12 3 II III AC dead 24 3 II III C deal 63 2 II II death 27 2 II III C decide 65 3 II II A degree 11 2 II II die 27 3 II IV C difference 19 2 III II C different 45 2 II II AC dinner 182 2 I II C direct 13 2 III II AC disappoint 34 3 III II dish 31 2 II III C divide 9 3 II III C doctor 152 3 II II AC dollar 37 2 I II C door 53 2 II III C doubt 22 3 II 1C dress 174 2 I II C drive 39 2 II II C drop 31 2 II II dry 33 2 II II during 47 1 III II A dust 29 2 II III C duty 24 3 II II C each 93 3 II II A early 55 3 II II AC earth 10 2 II III C eat 126 2 I II C effect... 13 2 II 1C eight 66 3 I II C either 62 2 I II A electric 10 2 III II eleven 31 3 II II else 67 3 I II A enclose 30 2 II II A end 57 2 II II C enjoy 107 2 II I AC equal 14 3 III II especially 37 1 III I A WORD LISTS 165 I II III IV V VI everybody 37 2 II II everything 105 I examination 26 1 III II A except 78 2 II II excuse 15 3 II III expect 147 3 I II A expense 19 3 III II A experience 13 2 II II A express 20 2 II III extra 33 2 II II eye 66 2 II II C face 58 2 II II C fact 40 1 III 1C fail 23 3 III II C fair 35 3 II II C fall 68 2 II II C family 84 3 II II C fast 35 2 II III fat 15 1 II IV father 87 2 II III AC fear 20 2 II III C fellow 63 2 II 1C fifteen 40 3 II III fifty 30 2 III II C fight 16 3 III 1C fill 38 2 I III A fine 170 2 I II AC finish 150 2 II II fire 51 3 II III fit 33 2 II II five 161 2 I II C fix 47 1 II II C flat 21 2 II II floor 42 2 II II C folk 157 2 II II follow 28 2 III I AC foot 58 2 II II C forenoon 123 2 II III forget 75 2 II II fourth 16 1 III I free 27 2 III II C front 37 2 II II C full 51 2 II I fun 28 2 II III funny 31 2 II II further 22 3 III II A game 64 2 I III C gate 13 3 III II i66 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI gather 12 2 II III C general 11 3 III II AC girl 410 2 I II AC glass 26 2 II II AC grade 24 2 III II grand 22 2 II II C great 168 3 II I AC green 29 2 II III C grind 33 2 II II C grip 13 1 II IV grow 38 3 II II C hair 46 3 II IV C half 120 3 II II AC hall 24 2 II II C hand 90 2 II I AC hang 43 2 II III happen 45 2 II II C happy 92 2 II II C hard 186 2 I II AC hardly 65 1 II II hat 45 2 II III AC hate 18 1 II II C head 74 3 I III C health 13 3 II III heart 51 3 III II C heat 27 2 III II C heavy 38 3 II II C herself 36 1 II II high 101 2 II I C himself 28 2 II II hold 72 1 II II A hole 17 2 II II horse 21 3 II II C hot 81 2 II III C hotel 52 2 II II however 37 1 III II AC hurry 36 2 II II hurt 60 2 II III C idea 28 2 imagine 52 3 II II impossible 17 2 III A improve 17 3 II II inside 16 2 II II C insist 17 2 III II instead 50 2 II II A intend 44 2 II II A interest 68 2 II I A into.. .125 2 II I C .WORD . LISTS 167 v-y y I II III IV V VI invite 54 2 II II C iron 71 3 II III C job 60 II II join 13 x 1 II III kid 47 1 II II kill 13 3 II IV kind 100 2 II I AC kiss 84 2 II III kitchen 38 2 II III C lady 65 2 II II A land 23 2 III II AC large 65 2 II II AC lately 10 III II learn 56 3 II II C lesson 17 2 II III A library 11 3 III II life 70 3 II 1C light 52 3 II II C line 82 2 II I AC listen 11 3 III II lose 52 2 II II lot 162 1IIIC love 526 3 I II AC lovely 47 1 I low 32 2 II III C lunch 43 2 II II machine 15 3 II II C mail 105 3 II III A manage 23 3 III II matter 56 2 II II AC may 288 3 II II AC maybe 64 II IV meal 23 3 III II mean 106 3 II I AC meet 173 3 II II AC mention 33 3 III I A mighty 21 1 II II mile 65 2 II II C mind 83 1 II II minute 79 3 I II C miss 45 2 II II moment 16 2 III II C money 98 3 II I AC month 124 2 I II AC mother 275 2 I II AC move 78 2 II II AC music 22 3 III II myself 80 1 I II i68 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI name 62 2 II I A nature 10 2 III 1C near 54 2 II 1C nearly 38 1 II II necessary 32 3 III I A neck 48 2 II III C neither 12 3 III II nerve 11 3 III II nine 58 2 II II C noise 11 3 II III C none 33 2 II II AC noon 76 2 I II C north 132 2 II II note 35 2 II I AC notice 22 2 II II number 55 2 II II AC o'clock 162 2 I II A offer 27 3 II II AC office 72 3 II I AC often 70 2 II II C oh 54 1 II II once 96 3 I II A open 56 2 II II AC order 63 2 II I , AC otherwise 16 III II our 401 2 II I AC ourselves 26 1 II III outside 12 1 II III C owe 22 3 II II pa 137 III II pack 30 2 II III package 20 2 II IV paint 9 3 III II C paper 105 2 II II AC park 32 1 III II parlor 30 3 II III party 47 2 II II pass 60 2 II I A past 53 2 II 1C pen 17 2 II III C per 38 III II perhaps 110 3 II II A person 34 2 II III AC piano 18 3 III II pick 17 2 II III picture 95 3 II III AC pie 30 2 II II C piece 62 3 II II C WORD LISTS 169 I II HI iv v vi pillow 28 3 II IV pin 18 2 II IV C plan 70 2 II I AC play 172 2 II II pleasant 61 3 II II AC please 89 2 II II AC plenty 21 2 II III C point 18 2 III II C poor 84 2 II II C porch 27 2 II III possible 48 3 II II A post 29 3 II II A postscript 57 2 II II potato 33 3 II III C power 8 2 III II C prepare 18 3 III II present 60 3 II II AC price 43 3 III II C probably 85 1 II II AC professor 13 2 II III promise 33 3 II II AC pull 30 2 II III quarter 25 3 II II C question 52 3 II II AC quick 17 2 II III C quiet 26 3 III II C quit 36 1 III II rain 104 3 I II AC raise 22 3 II II C rather 101 2 II II C reach 64 2 III I AC read 179 2 II II AC ready 100 3 I II AC real 59 3 II II C realize 26 2 III II really 79 3 II II C reason 46 3 II II A receive 148 3 II II AC red 39 2 II III AC regard 38 2 II II A remain 19 2 III I AC remember 98 2 II I AC rent 62 2 II II C report 18 2 III II A request 9 1 III II A return 72 2 II I A rich 14 1 III II C ride.. 84 3 II II C 1 70 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI ring 16 3 III II AC road 16 3 II III C rock 26 2 II II roll 14 2 II III roof 13 3 II II room 240 2 I II AC safe 13 1 II III C satisfy 29 3 II III save 46 2 III II scare 10 2 II III school 231 2 I II AC seat 34 2 II III second 47 2 II I AC seem 274 2 II II AC select 9 2 III II A sell 29 3 III II C send 385 3 I II AC serve 30 2 II II C service 45 3 III I A set 38 2 II II A settle 39 2 II II C seventy 22 1 II III C sew 69 3 II C shall 612 3 II I AC shop 31 2 II II short 91 2 II I AC sick 132 I III C side 90 2 II II C sight 24 3 II II C sign.., 18 3 III II C silk 15 II IV since 185 3 I II AC sister 123 2 II II C sit 95 2 II III sixty 28 1 II IV C size 28 3 II II A skirt 46 2 II IV C sleep 104 3 II III C small 76 1 II II AC smoke 34 2 III II C snow 23 2 II C something 154 1 I II A sometime 71 2 II II C son 12 3 III II sore 33 3 II III sorry 92 3 II II A sort 32 2 II III eound.. 24 2 II II C WORD LISTS 171 I II III IV V VI south 30 2 II II C speak 76 3 II I AC special 18 2 III II A spell 29 2 II IV spoil 14 1 III II C spot 12 2 III II spring 44 2 II II C stair 71 3 II III C stand 83 2 II II AC state 25 2 II II A stay 215 2 I II step 30 2 II II stick 18 2 II III C still 105 2 I II AC stock 34 2 II II C stop 124 2 I II AC store 47 2 II II C story 42 2 II II C stove 33 2 II IV street 181 2 I II AC strike 24 2 II II C strong 43 2 II II C student 16 2 III II study 41 3 II II A stuff 29 2 III II style 18 3 II II success 16 3 III II AC suggest 9 2 III II A suit 91 3 I II C summer 79 3 II II AC sun 24 1 II III supper 94 3 I II surprise 39 2 II I A sweet 40 3 II III C table 39 2 II II AC taste 15 2 II II C teach 37 3 III II teacher 90 2 III II AC ten 107 2 II I C terrible 52 3 II II A thank 31 2 II III A thick 11 2 III II C thin 21 3 II IV C third 55 2 II II thirty 39 2 II II C thoroughly 11 1 III II throw 24 3 II II C ticket... 37 3 III II A 172 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI tight 15 2 II III C till 103 2 II II tire 112 2 II II C together 73 3 II I tomorrow 170 2 I II AC top 21 1 I II C treat 20 2 II II tree 36 2 II III C trip 100 1 II II trouble 93 3 II II AC trunk 39 2 II III turn 69 2 I II C twelve 29 3 II III C twenty 105 3 II I C twice 34 3 II III C uncle 72 3 I II C under 42 2 II II AC understand 47 2 II II AC university 31 2 II II unless 57 2 II II until 240 3 II I A upon 22 2 III I A usual 38 3 II II vacation 10 3 III II view 16 3 III II waist 52 3 II IV wait 113 3 II I A walk 108 3 I II C wall 23 2 III II C warm 71 2 II II C wash 117 2 II III C waste 14 3 II II C watch 19 3 II III AC water 54 3 II II C wear 112 3 I II AC weather 77 3 II I AC west 35 2 II II AC whatever 24 2 II II whether 102 2 II I AC white 67 2 I II AC who 208 1 II I AC whole 54 3 II II C why 80 2 II II A wife 45 3 II II C win 22 3 III II C wind 28 2 II IV C window 35 3 II II winter.. 72 2 II II C WORD LISTS 173 I II III IV V VI without 104 2 II I AC woman 60 3 I III AC wonder 96 3 II II A wonderful 28 2 III II C word 74 2 II 1C work 357 -2 II I AC world 28 2 III I AC worry 52 3 II II worth 40 2 II I A wrong 27 3 III II C yard 30 2 III II C yellow 11 3 II III C yes 56 1 II II A young 104 3 II II C yourself 21 1 III II LIST III 2207 WORDS WORDS USED BY LESS THAN A MA- JORITY OF THE CORRESPONDENTS I II III IV V VI ab3ence 5 3 III III A absent 4 3 II absolutely 7 IV II academy 3 3 IV IV accent 3 2 III IV accommodation 6 1 III , accompany 7 3 III III accomplish 15 2 III III accord 6 2 III III accuse 2 3 IV IV accustom 2 2 III ache 28 3 II IV acid 3 3 III acknowledge 3 3 IV IV acquaint 8 2 III acquaintance 4 3 III IV acquire 3 3 III IV acre 5 3 IV III action 10 2 IV III active 2 2 IV IV actually 5 1 III II acute 3 2 III addition 4 3 III III additional 4 1 IV III adjoin 2 1 III 174 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI adjourn 2 3 III administration 3 1 III admire 6 1 II admission 2 2 IV IV admit 72 II adopt 6 2 IV III advance 7 1 IV III advertise 4 3 III III advice 4 2 III IV advise 7 1 III III affair 17 2 III II affect 3 3 IV IV affectionate 4 1 IV IV affectionately 17 1 III afford 12 3 III IV a6re 2 IV IV agency 5 2 III agent 13 2 III III aggravate 5 2 III agree 15 3 III III C agreeable 6 2 IV II C aid 6 3 IV II ail 3 1 III aim 4 2 IV IV aisle 2 3 IV IV alarm 4 2 III album 2 1 IV IV alcohol 3 2 III algebra 4 2 III IV alike 4 2 III alive 7 2 III IV alley 2 3 III IV aloud 6 2 III IV alphabet 2 3 IV IV altar 2 3 IV IV alter 5 3 III alteration 2 III although 51 2 III III altitude 5 2 III altogether 6 2 II amateur 2 3 IV IV ambition 5 2 III IV amuse 4 3 III anesthetic 2 1 IV IV angel 3 3 IV IV angry 6 2 III IV C animal 7 3 III C ankle 5 3 III IV WORD LISTS 175 I II III IV V VI anniversary 4 3 III announce 3 3 IV IV announcement 3 IV IV annually 2 1 IV IV anybody 12 III IV anyhow 20 1 III IV anywhere 6 III III apart 8 2 III IV apartment 12 1 III IV apiece 9 III IV apparatus 6 3 IV IV appeal 4 3 IV III appear 9 III A appearance 2 3 III appetite 6 3 III apple 24 2 II IV application 5 2 IV III A apply 4 2 III IV appoint 4 2 IV III A appointment 3 1 III IV appreciative 2 IV IV approach 4 3 III IV appropriate 4 2 III IV approve 7 2 III IV approximately 3 IV IV apron 15 3 III apt 2 2 IV IV area 2 3 III argue 4 3 IV III argument 6 3 IV II arm 67 2 II IV C arrange 12 3 III II A arrangement 10 1 III II arrival 5 3 IV III art 6 2 II article. 7 2 III III A artificially 2 IV IV ashamed 5 2 III IV aside 6 1 III III assembly 3 1 III assist 5 2 III IV assistant 4 2 III III associate 4 3 III association 9 2 III III A assume 2 2 IV IV assufe 11 2 II A attack 6 2 IV II attendance . . 5 2 III III 176 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II attention 8 attentive 2 attic 5 attorney 3 attraction 5 auction 2 autobiography 2 average 7 aviary 2 avoid 5 await 7 awake 12 awaken 3 awhile 16 bachelor 7 backward 6 bacon 8 bag 11 baggage 5 bake, balance . bald... ball.... banana, band. . 44 7 3 29 2 11 banquet 19 bar 2 bare 10 barely 5 barn 13 barrel 6 barrier 2 base 16 baseball 16 basement 3 bat 8 bathe 8 bathroom 14 bawl 2 bay 8 beach 10 bead 5 bean 18 bear 20 beautifully 7 beauty 5 bedroom 16 bedtime.. 3 III 2 1 2 3 1 3 2 2 1 2 3 2 1 IV III IV III IV III III III III IV IV III III III III IV III III HI II III IV III III III III IV III III III III III IV HI IV HI II III III III HI III III HI HI IV V II IV IV III HI III HI III II HI IV IV IV HI IV III IV III IV III III IV III III IV IV IV III III IV IV II III IV VI A WORD LISTS 177 1 II III IV V VI bee 2 2 III beef 7 2 111 C beer 4 1 III IV beforehand 3 1 III IV beg 7 2 III III A behave 3 2 III behind 11 2 III III C behold 2* 2 IV IV bell 8 2 III IV belong 15 2 III III below 7 2 III IV C belt 9 2 III bend 5 2 III III benefit 13 3 III III berry 10 2 III C berth 11 3 III IV bet 7 II betimes 2 III beyond 6 3 III bicycle 2 3 IV IV bid 8 2 III bind 9 2 III IV C bird 6 2 III IV birth 22 III C biscuit 8 3 III blank 4 1 IV IV blanket 6 1 III IV blaze 2 2 III bleed 2 2 III bless 8 2 III IV C blind 3 2 III C blister 3 2 III IV bloody 2 IV IV bloom 4 2 III blossom 6 3 III blot 5 1 III IV blouse 4 3 III IV bluff 7 1 III IV blush 6 2 III IV boarder 6 III III boat 20 3 III III C boil 15 2 II IV C bone 6 2 III III bonnet 2 3 III bookcase 5 1 III III border 3 3 IV IV borrow 13 3 III III boss.... 6 2 IV II 1 78 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI bother 17 1 II IV bow 5 3 III IV bowel 11 III bowl 3 3 III brace 2 2 IV IV braid 5 3 III brain 5 3 III II branch 2 2 IV IV brand 2 2 IV IV breast 2 2 III breath 3 3 III IV breathe 11 3 III III brick 9 2 III III C bride 2 1 III bridge 10 2 III III C bright 15 3 III III brightly 2 1 IV IV brilliant 2 3 IV IV brisk 2 1 III broach 2 1 IV IV bronchitis 6 2 III bruise 3 3 III IV brush 8 2 III IV bug 3 1 III IV buggy 4 2 IV III bugle 2 1 III bull 3 2 IV IV bum 5 III IV bump 2 1 III bunch 14 2 III III bundle 7 2 III IV C bungalow 7 III IV burden 4 2 III III burial 4 2 burner 6 III burst 2 2 III bury 7 2 III bus 11 III III bush 3 2 III bushel 9 3 II C bust 2 III button 19 2 III C cab 4 1 IV IV cabbage 7 3 III cabin 4 3 III IV cafeteria 14 HI IV calculation 2 1 IV IV calendar.. 2 3 IV IV WORD LISTS 179 I II III IV V VI caller 8 HI camel 2 2 III camera 3 3 III IV camp 10 2 IV camphor 3 2 III cancer 2 1 III candidate 5 3 IV III candy 19 2 II IV canoe 5 3 IV IV canon 6 3 IV IV canvas 2 3 III cap 11 2 III IV capacity 6 3 IV III cape 4 2 III capital 2 3 IV IV C capitol 10 3 III IV captain 4 3 IV IV carbon 4 1 IV IV carefully 4 1 III IV careless x . 2 2 IV IV carelessness 3 III carnation 3 2 III IV carpenter 3 2 III carpet 4 2 III IV C carriage 7 3 III cartoon 2 2 IV IV cash 7 2 III IV casserole 7 III cast 3 2 IV III cat 4 2 III IV C catalogue 3 2 IV III A catarrh 4 2 III IV cave 6 2 IV IV ceiling 4 3 IV III C celebrate 2 3 IV IV celebration 2 1 IV IV cellar 12 3 III III cement 4 3 III IV cemetery 4 3 III IV center 7 2 IV III A central 2 2 IV IV chain 4 3 III AC chairman 2 2 IV IV channel 4 2 III chapel 24 2 III IV chaperon 12 1 IV IV chapter 2 2 III character 4 3 IV III i8o THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI charity 3 2 IV IV charm 7 2 III II chase 5 3 III III chautauqua 17 1 III cheaply 2 III check 14 2 III A cheek 10 2 III II cheerful... 8 1 III IV chest.... ** 2 1 IV IV chief 2 2 IV IV childhood 4 1 III IV childish 2 IV IV chill 7 3 II chilly 5 1 III IV chimney 2 3 IV IV C china 4 1 III IV chip 2 1 III chocolate 3 3 III choice 9 2 III II choir 18 3 IV III choke 2 2 III choose 6 3 III II C chore 9 1 III cigar 3 2 IV IV circle 5 III III C circular 4 circumstance 5 2 III III circus 10 3 III IV cistern 12 3 III III citizen 2 2 III civil 4 3 III claim 6 2 III III A classical 2 1 III clause 2 2 III clerk 6 2 IV IV C climate 10 2 III IV climb 6 3 III IV clip 15 1 III II closely 2 IV IV closet 20 3 II IV cloud 6 2 IV III cloudy 9 1 III III C club.. 15 1 III III C coach 8 1 III IV coal.. 17 1 III IV C coast..... 10 2 III III collar.... 11 3 III IV collect.. 6 2 III IV WORD LISTS 181 I II III IV V VI collection 7 1 III IV college 35 2 IV II comb 11 3 III IV combination 2 1 III combine 3 1 IV III comedy 3 3 IV IV comfortably 6 III IV commence 8 2 III IV commencement 10 III If I comment 4 2 III IV commission 3 2 III IV committee 4 3 III IV AC communication 4 1 IV III companion 3 1 III comparison 2 1 IV IV complain 8 3 III IV complete 9 3 III II C completely 4 IV IV compliment 4 3 III III concert 4 2 III IV conclude 9 2 III IV conduct 10 2 III III conductor 3 3 IV IV confess 4 2 III IV confidential 6 IV III confine 3 2 IV III congenial 3 2 IV III congress 2 1 IV IV connect 6 3 III connection 13 1 III III consent 5 2 IV III consequence 4 2 IV III consequently 4 III consider 10 2 III II A considerable 13 1 IV III considerably 8 1 III III consideration 3 2 IV IV consist 6 1 III III conspicuous 2 2 IV IV constant 3 2 III IV constantly 6 IV III construct 2 1 IV IV consult 2 2 IV IV consumption 5 2 III IV contain 8 3 III III A contemplate 2 1 III contend 2 1 IV IV content.. 14 2 III III 182 THE CHILD AND HIS SPELLING I II III IV V VI contest 16 2 IV IV continually 6 1 III III contract 13 2 III II contrary 2 2 IV IV contrast 2 2 IV IV contribution 3 2 III control 4 3 IV II convenient 3 2 III IV A convention 8 2 II conversation 6 2 III II convert 2 2 IV IV convey 2 3 IV IV conveyance 5 2 IV IV convince 5 2 IV II cooky 8 1 III corner 13 3 III III C corporation 2 2 III correct 12 3 III III corset 5 1 III cottage 5 3 III cotton 7 3 III C couch 13 3 III III cough 28 3 III counter 4 2 IV IV county 15 1 IV II courage 3 3 IV IV C court 17 3 III III cousin 36 3 III III C cow 4 2 IV III cozy 2 3 III crack 4 2 III cracker 5 2 III cramp 6 1 III IV cranberry 2 2 III crawl 2 2 IV IV cream 22 3 II IV create 2 2 III creature 2 3 IV IV credit 7 2 III III crestfallen 2 IV IV critical 4 2 III III criticize 4 2 IV III crochet 2 2 III crocodile 3 1 IV IV crop 8 2 III III crow 2 2 III crowd 18 3 III II crown.. 3 2 III IV WORD LISTS 183 I II III IV V VI cruel 2 3 IV IV C crutch 5 2 III IV cry 60 2 III IV cucumber 2 3 III cuff 3 1 III cultivate 5 2 III culture 3 2 III IV cupboard 8 3 III IV curly 6 IV IV currant 2 3 III curtain 20 3 III IV cushion 5 3 III IV custard 13 3 III custom 7 3 IV III C customary 2 2 III cute 13 1 III IV daddy 20 III daily 13 3 III II C dainty 2 3 III dairy 5 3 III IV damage 6 3 III IV damp 2 2 III C dancer 2 IV IV dandy 5 1 III III danger 9 3 IV II C dangerous 3 IV III dare 10 2 III III C darkness 3 2 IV III darling 42 1 III IV darn 6 2 III IV daytime 3 IV IV dean 3 1 III debate 18 2 IV III debt 4 3 IV III 1 JL * . finr 1 7 IQCO'* / UCLA-ED/PSYCH Library LB1574C77 L 005 588 929 9 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAaLrTY