232 English Grammar Demystifi ed
- Are you an auditory learner? You learn primarily through listening. You
are a focused listener. You may like to talk rather than write; therefore,
discussing what you’ve learned is always more fun than either writing or
reading. - Are you a kinesthetic learner? You learn primarily by doing. Underlining
and highlighting key words or ideas work for you. You need to practice
what you’ve learned, so whatever you’re learning, it’s hands-on for you.
The computer keyboard, an instrument, ice-skating, skiing—learning is all
in the doing.
How does this apply to improving your spelling? You should think about how
you prefer to learn when you study words. Do you prefer to move around (kines-
thetic) as you study? Do it! Have your list handy, perhaps on 3-by-5 cards, and spell
the words out loud as you walk. Then write, correct, and rewrite if necessary. If you
learn better by listening, dictate the words into a recorder and then listen to the way
the words are spelled. In every case, and no matter what kind of learner you are,
make writing one of the steps in the learning process. For some, the writing simply
may not be the fi rst step.
WHAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW
To improve your spelling, you need to know the following: English has forty-fi ve
distinct sounds, called phonemes, but only twenty-six letters. This makes spelling
all the more diffi cult. Specifi cally, there are vowels, a,e,i,o,u, and sometimes y,
and consonants, which are the rest of the alphabet. Letters are put together in syl-
lables, or small units of sound. Any word that contains more than one syllable has
an accent on one of those syllables.
Example: bi-O-gra-phy.
This word is made of four syllables. Say it out loud. Can you hear the accented or
stressed syllable? The second syllable is stressed; therefore, an accent mark appears
before it.
There are reasons for English spelling being as peculiar as it is. English is made
of words from many different languages and has inherited spellings from all of
them. Until about three hundred years ago, there were no set spellings and there
were no dictionaries in English. That is no longer a problem; there are many excel-
lent dictionaries—some with clear guidance on pronunciation.