How to Use a Dictionary If You Cannot Spell the Word - Part 1
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
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By David Donahoo
Learning to spell requires that you can know what letters make up the word so that you can spell it correctly. If you are reading a book and come across a word you do not know then you can actually see the word in front of you and are able to learn to spell it. If you do not know what the word means you are able to easily look it up in the dictionary because you can see the letters.
When you want to spell a word but are unable to work out how to spell it, you need assistance. Often you will be told to go to a dictionary to find out how to spell it. When I suggest students go and look up the dictionary, I watch what they are doing to see how well they are able to work out the word and spell it. Those who are able to determine how to spell the word use particular strategies to find the word. Sometimes they are aware of these strategies and other times they use them without being aware. So what are these strategies that can make it easier to use a dictionary to find out how to spell the word and its meaning? There are two parts to the strategy:
Determine where to start looking in the dictionary
How to scan the pages and words in the dictionary.
So let's look at these separately. The first part is: determine where to start looking. When you do this right you can find the word easily. If you do it incorrectly then you may not find the word. However, at times you may need to repeat this process a number of times depending on the word.
First let's determine how to spell a simple English word that does not have any of the English rules that make spelling difficult; rules like prefixes, suffixes, silent letters or plurals. For example the word "sleep". To determine the spelling before you look up the dictionary:
Say the word out loud as you think it is said.
Then say it out loud slowly sounding out the letters.
Listen to the letters sounds and write down the letters in the order you hear yourself saying them.
Once you have listed the letters in the sound order, use the second part of the strategy and look up the dictionary to determine it's correct spelling.
If you wanted to spell the word "receive", for example. When you sound it out, as it sounds, you get: "receve", with no "I". Since this word contains groups of letters that can make the English language difficult to spell, then there are other options you can take:
Understand the English spelling rules so that you can determine which are applicable for the word you want to spell. You can also look up the internet for the rules and search around to find the right one, or look up an English spelling rules book.
Often we use a word because we have seen it written somewhere. Try and see the word in your mind as you say the word and determine at least the first three letters.
Break the word down into its syllables. So you get the letters "re" and "ceve". So you can at least start to look for the words starting with the first syllables.
If you know a word that means the same thing which you know how to spell, you can look up a thesaurus for that word and see if it has the word you want to spell.
Ask someone else how they would spell it.
Once you have the way you think the word can be spelled. Then it is time to search through the dictionary to find out. Refer to my article How to Use a Dictionary If You Cannot Spell the Word - Part 2 on how to do the second part of the strategy; search the dictionary to find out how to spell a word,
David Donahoo Dip. Clinical Hypnotherapy, Master Practitioner NLP, AI, Speaker
The Eyes of Horus
Helping those stuck negative emotions & behaviours to gain freedom through empowering behaviours.
To find out more register for my monthly ezine and a free hypnotic download at: http://www.theeyesofhorus.com.au/downloadsqueezepage.html.
http://www.spellingbetter.com, which goes through all these rules in one place. You can also look
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Donahoo
Learning to spell requires that you can know what letters make up the word so that you can spell it correctly. If you are reading a book and come across a word you do not know then you can actually see the word in front of you and are able to learn to spell it. If you do not know what the word means you are able to easily look it up in the dictionary because you can see the letters.
When you want to spell a word but are unable to work out how to spell it, you need assistance. Often you will be told to go to a dictionary to find out how to spell it. When I suggest students go and look up the dictionary, I watch what they are doing to see how well they are able to work out the word and spell it. Those who are able to determine how to spell the word use particular strategies to find the word. Sometimes they are aware of these strategies and other times they use them without being aware. So what are these strategies that can make it easier to use a dictionary to find out how to spell the word and its meaning? There are two parts to the strategy:
Determine where to start looking in the dictionary
How to scan the pages and words in the dictionary.
So let's look at these separately. The first part is: determine where to start looking. When you do this right you can find the word easily. If you do it incorrectly then you may not find the word. However, at times you may need to repeat this process a number of times depending on the word.
First let's determine how to spell a simple English word that does not have any of the English rules that make spelling difficult; rules like prefixes, suffixes, silent letters or plurals. For example the word "sleep". To determine the spelling before you look up the dictionary:
Say the word out loud as you think it is said.
Then say it out loud slowly sounding out the letters.
Listen to the letters sounds and write down the letters in the order you hear yourself saying them.
Once you have listed the letters in the sound order, use the second part of the strategy and look up the dictionary to determine it's correct spelling.
If you wanted to spell the word "receive", for example. When you sound it out, as it sounds, you get: "receve", with no "I". Since this word contains groups of letters that can make the English language difficult to spell, then there are other options you can take:
Understand the English spelling rules so that you can determine which are applicable for the word you want to spell. You can also look up the internet for the rules and search around to find the right one, or look up an English spelling rules book.
Often we use a word because we have seen it written somewhere. Try and see the word in your mind as you say the word and determine at least the first three letters.
Break the word down into its syllables. So you get the letters "re" and "ceve". So you can at least start to look for the words starting with the first syllables.
If you know a word that means the same thing which you know how to spell, you can look up a thesaurus for that word and see if it has the word you want to spell.
Ask someone else how they would spell it.
Once you have the way you think the word can be spelled. Then it is time to search through the dictionary to find out. Refer to my article How to Use a Dictionary If You Cannot Spell the Word - Part 2 on how to do the second part of the strategy; search the dictionary to find out how to spell a word,
David Donahoo Dip. Clinical Hypnotherapy, Master Practitioner NLP, AI, Speaker
The Eyes of Horus
Helping those stuck negative emotions & behaviours to gain freedom through empowering behaviours.
To find out more register for my monthly ezine and a free hypnotic download at: http://www.theeyesofhorus.com.au/downloadsqueezepage.html.
http://www.spellingbetter.com, which goes through all these rules in one place. You can also look
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Donahoo
