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Speech to Spelling

A Collection of Teacher-Directed, Student Self-Corrected, Fun-filled & Information-packed, Non-graded Exercises Designed for All Ages

W321 - $14.95     8½x11   82 pp.    ISBN:  1-56400-060-5
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We have all seen student papers with sentences such as this:   "Thair gonna go thair to git sum stuff fur holloween, an were gonna go thair to hlep them."

This sentence came from a paper written by a high school student who was carrying a 3.5 grade point average.  He had A's in physics and calculus.  But he was struggling through my English class.  When my Alfred N. turned in his first paper, I wasn't really sure whether he was a genius at abusing our spelling conventions like George Bernard Shaw who could spell fish "ghoti" or whether he had been high on drugs when he wrote it and never bothered proofreading.   The entire paper was almost impossible for anybody but a teacher to read.  But Alfred's problem isn't unique.  Large numbers of students in both urban and rural schools suffer from the "Thair gonna go thair" syndrome. View Sample.

Some students suffer from the swallowed "R" bug and consistently write:

Your funny...

instead of

 You are funny (or you're funny)
Were smart

instead of

 We are smart (or We're smart)
Thair dumb

instead of

 They are dumb (or They're dumb)

Others suffer from the swallowed "is" bug and consistently write:

He nice

instead of

 He is nice (or He's nice)
That right

instead of

 That is right (or That's right)
Whose dat

instead of

 Who is that? (or Who's that?)

Those who have the "of" bug consistently write:

I should of talk to him

instead of

 I should have talked to him.
We would of miss that

instead of

 We would have missed that.
I could of done that

instead of

 I could have done that.

Goals of the Speech to Spelling program

1. Students will be able to recognize the differences and the similarities between spoken English and written English.

2. Students will learn to appreciate and understand the values of all spoken dialects including their own.

3. Students will learn to develop personal responsibility for correcting and learning from their mistakes at the time that they make mistakes.

4. Students will learn that writers often deliberately misspell words and phrases for humorous or dramatic effect, and often to indicate that the speaker is poorly educated.