Friday, March 9, 2007

Reading is Better than Drills

Of all the errors that Shaughessy covers in Errors and Expectations, spelling and vocabulary are two that are most clearly connected to reading. Spelling isn't completely random in English, but there are too many rules to simply memorize, even with the drills that Shaughnessy provides (178, 180). Exposing students to one rule that would significantly improve their writing sounds like a good idea. That way they don't feel like there's simply no way to learn to spell. But on the other hand, bombarding them with lists of rules had got to be more intimidating that handing them a dictionary and teaching them to use it. It's good to help students realize that there's a method to much of English spelling's madness. But let's not fool ourselves--spelling is mostly memorized and the rules that Shaughnessy shares are probably best learned simply by internalizing the patterns through reading, not through drills.

I think Shaughnessy's approach to vocabulary is more workable. She admits that real gains in vocabulary are subject-based and take time--exposure to the vocabulary of the field (224). It doesn't hurt to learn word parts--unlike spelling, which is usually memorized or guessed at, word meaning really can be deciphered by taking a word apart and looking at the meanings of its parts. Again I'd be careful not to overload students with charts or drills, but studying a few basic roots and prefixes and exercises in explaining the shades of meaning among synonyms really shoud help students have an easier time with words.

Works Cited

Shaughnessy, Mina P. Errors and Expectations: A Guide for the Teacher of Basic Writing. New York: Oxford UP, 1977.

4 comments:

Teacher: Gabe Isackson e-mail: gisackson@spsmail.org said...

The exposure to reading – wow! what a difference it makes. As we discussed in class, what a student reads, how often, and at what age really plays a role in the development of spelling and vocabulary that sticks with a person. It has to come down to memorization for all the silent letters, breaking of rules the language possesses.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree. Reading helps you to learn the word; that's what it's really about. Good readers recognize, not individual letter, but whole words. And if the letters are scrambled you can probably still make it out, but you know it's not quite right. The only way to learn new words is to either drill or to read with the latter being much more effective. To bring the argument into the ever-used sports analogy genre: Which would you rather do? Dribble a basketball in place for one hour or scrimmage against another play AND which one is really more helpful. The second might be more work, but definitely more fun.

imcriswell said...

Yeah, spelling is not as uniform as it should be. I mean, if the rule is "I before E except after C," the rule should stick to all words... including receive. Now, I'm not like Bernard Shaw in saying that fish can be spelled "ghoti," but there has to be a better way to teach spelling than just to memorize the words. Like Gallagher said, "how am I supposed to take a language seriously when it doesn't take me seriously?"

scoutnell7 said...

I agree all those charts and rules could be overload for students. I spell fairly well and I have a hard time remembering all those. Reading is so key to helping with this, I agree.