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Topic: Spelling

These resources relate to English spelling.

Spelling - Syllables, consonants, vowels

Goals

  • To increase student awareness of the sound sequences in one syllable words.
  • To highlight that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters.
  • To practise dividing words into syllables.

Lesson plan

In this lesson, students will work through three activities. The first two involve categorising words according to syllable structure and number of syllables, while the third activity is a class competition requiring students to draw on their vocabulary knowledge.

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Spelling - Syllables, consonants, vowels: Activity 1

Vowel and consonant sequences

Here are five patterns of vowel (V) and consonant (C) sound sequences in words with one syllable.

  • CV: go, though
  • VC: up, inn
  • CVC: ban, mine
  • CCV: slow, true
  • CVCC: mint, mined

Instructions:

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Synonymy (Stein)

Plan

Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

Activity 1

Start by explaining the meaning of the term synonym. For an example, ask learners to think of some synonyms for the word 'argument'. 

In the next slide, show the two possible examples. Ask learners if these two words have the exact same meaning or if there are any subtle differences. Try asking learners in what situations they would/would not use each word.

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Synonymy (Stein)

Lesson

Activity 1

A synonym is a words that has the same, or a very similar, meaning to another. 

Take for example the word argument.

How many words can you think of that have the same or a very similar meaning? 

For the word argument, some synonyms are quarrel or row.

The words quarrel and row have the same general meaning.

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Synonymy (Stein)

Lesson

Activity 5

Just like with nouns, there are also many synonyms which are adjectives. These have the same, or very similar, meanings to each other, and are used in different contexts.

What does the term adjective mean? What examples can you think of? Can you think of any synonyms?

Find the synonymous adjective in these two sentences:

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Texting language

In this lesson, students explore the features of texting language, from a linguistic perspective.

Goals

  • Discuss texting language from a linguistic perspective.
  • Define some key linguistic terms relevant to texting language.

Lesson Plan

Part 1

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Texting language: Activity

Text 1 Text 2

Hey Gems,how ru?How was last nite?Hope u had a gd time..;)I herd the party was rele bad…ppl had an awful time!I guess I shud b glad I didn’t go afta all…tbXx

Free Msg; Our records indicate you may be entitled to £3750 for the accident you had. To apply free reply CLAIM to this message. To opt out text STOP

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Y6 GPaS Test: Spelling plurals

Select the correct plural form:

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Letters and sounds

We often tend to think about English in terms of the written language, because of its importance in our society and in our education system. However, spoken language is really much more basic to us as human beings:

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Spelling

Is it always necessary to spell words correctly? Of course not. When students send text messages, for example, they abbreviate words and simplify spellings; indeed, sometimes to do anything else could be silly. But when they’re giving a presentation and need to write on the whiteboard, spelling words incorrectly can be a real problem.

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Spelling: A history

Most alphabets in the world’s living languages evolved from a single alphabet developed around 2000 BC in the Eastern Mediterranean.

A lot has changed since then. Even from the time of Old English, from about AD 500 to about AD 1100, much has changed. In fact, languages are always changing. Over the generations, grammar changes, words and their meanings change, accents and pronunciations change, and spelling changes.

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Spelling: Alternative spelling

Just like humour and humor, and centre and center, a number of other words vary in their British and American spellings. How different are British and American spelling and how should you choose which spelling to learn?

The number of spelling differences between British and American English amount to less than 1% of the overall vocabulary of contemporary English. It’s not something that we need to be terribly worried about, but it is always something that we must bear in mind.

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Spelling: Double consonants

If a root word ends in a consonant, adding a suffix will sometimes require that you double the base word’s final consonant. How do you know when to double the consonant?

Consider the following examples, where doubled consonants are underlined.

  • shipment
  • shipped
  • muddy
  • fitful
  • fittest
  • waiting
  • greenest
    •

Now take a look at some larger words, whose base forms have more than one syllable.

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Spelling: Resources

The most important resource for English spelling is a good dictionary. Which dictionary should you use? A variety of dictionaries is available, suitable for various skill levels and specializations, for both British and American English.

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Spelling: Rules

At some point, many of us learned some handy spelling rules that we’ve carried with us for years.

Most people probably remember the mnemonic:

  • I before E except after C.

That’s a very useful rule for remembering how to spell believe and receive. But what about seize and seizure? And what about leisure, either, or heifer?

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Spelling: Spelling and word structure

Many common spelling errors occur with double consonants or vowel combinations, as in the following words:

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Spelling: Suffixes

Suffixes cause many of our common spelling mistakes. One challenge is simply to know which is correct: for example, legible or legable? In fact, −ible and −able serve the same function, and sound the same. As a matter of history, -ible entered English from Latin, while −able entered English from French, but there’s no easy rule for knowing when to use which suffix. Each word with each suffix just requires practice.

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Spelling: Suffixes and 'e'

If an original word ends in a final e, as in manage,adding a suffix will sometimes require that you drop the final e in the root word.

  • Drop the final e: managing
  • Keep the final e: management

How do you know when to drop the final e?

First, consider the following examples, which either drop or keep the final e.

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Spelling: Suffixes and 'y'

When a word ends in y, adding a suffix will sometimes require that we change the y to an i or to an ie. How do you know when to change the y?

Look through the examples below and the rules that follow.

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English Grammar Day 2016

'Grammar is cool, and it is cool to know your grammar'.

A video about the Third English Grammar Day held at the British Library in 2016.

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