Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
Andrew, spelling used to be taught in a primarily oral and auditory way—I’m thinking about the old-fashioned spelling bee. Is that approach good for all students, or just those who are having trouble learning through the visual method?

Andrew Pudewa:
Well, I think that the oral and auditory approach that predates the modern kind of workbook is a very sound way to teach spelling for almost all children, for a few reasons.

The first reason is that spelling is a sequential activity. To spell a word correctly you not only have to get all the letters, you’ve got to get them down on the paper in the right order. Now when we see a word, we see the word all at once. We see all the letters, they come into our brains simultaneously, there’s no sequential storage of information.

However, when we spell verbally and listen to words being spelled auditorally, we are hearing them in the right sequence. And so if we put something into the brain in the right sequence we’re likely to get it out of the brain in the right sequence.

And you know the secondary thing is for a lot of children, the oral drill is a little less tedious then the writing on paper again and again, and that makes it a little easier.

Mike: Andrew, that’s really fascinating. Thanks so much for joining me. We’ll be back next time with some practical teaching tips. I’m Mike Farris.