The following article is in today's UK Daily Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7880189/English-spelling-too-difficult-for-children.html

English spelling 'too difficult for children'

The complexity of the English spelling system is to blame for soaring levels of illiteracy among teenagers, according to a researcher.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

Published: 10:00PM BST 08 Jul 2010

Children are struggling to read and write at a young age because of the sheer complexity of the spelling system, says Masha Bell. Photo: Getty Images

A high number of “inconsistencies” in the way basic words are spelt makes it much harder for children to read and write at a young age, it is claimed.

Masha Bell, author and literacy researcher, will tell a conference of English teachers on Friday that sweeping reforms are needed to the spelling system to improve children’s linguistic skills.

Pupils' handwriting 'increasingly illegible' She will say that English employs 185 “unreliable” spellings for just 44 speech sounds. Words such as too, true, who, flew, shoe and you all employ different letters to represent the same sound, she will say.

According to academics, children in Britain normally take three years to read to a decent standard.

But in Finland – where words are more likely to be pronounced as they look – children can read fluently within three months.

Her comments will be made to the annual conference of the National Association for Teachers of English in Leicestershire.

Speaking before the conference, Mrs Bell, author of the books Learning to Read and Rules and Exceptions of English Spelling, said English was unique in the way in which “identical letters make different sounds”.

“It is difficult to learn any subject, or even to train for a trade nowadays, without learning to read and write first, but roughly 20 per cent of all speakers of English leave school with very poor literacy skills,” she said.

“The antique, inconsistent spelling system of English is probably the main reason why the UK has a far longer tail of educational underachievement than any other European country, why more of our young people are Neets (Not in Education Employment or Training), why many end up in jail, and why improving their chances of re-offending while in prison is much more difficult too.”

Mrs Bell’s views have been criticised in the past for advocating “dumbing down” of a spelling system that has naturally evolved over centuries.

She has previously claimed that children face 800 words by the age of 11 that hinder their reading ability because of the way they are spelt.

Words such as orange, foreign, rhinoceros, handkerchief, soldiers and stomach all contain letter combinations that are more commonly pronounced in a different way, she claimed.

Now I taught my daughter to read - OK, Janet and John books - by the age of three, to write quite well by five years old. She was bright, still is, but not a prodigy.

The reasons that kids these days can't read / write / spell / take an interest in books and magazines is surely more that the parents and teachers lack the ability, the time, the interest in teaching kids. And the old demon - TV. Backed up now by the texting mobile phone and the Twitter-like communications systems on the Internet.

Plus, of course, the fact that the Microsoft spell-check on English (UK) is so vastly incorrect that it's no wonder kids are confused.

I sincerely hope that this researcher has no further contact with any government office, especially any office connected with edification.

By the way, here is a little Finnish to practice your 'simple' prononciation ...

Pekko toivookin, että kaupunkilaiset ovat aktiivisia ilmoittaessaan sameasta vedestä. Ensin toki kannattaa juoksuttaa vettä jonkin aikaa. Jos tämä ei tehoa ......

Simple? Don't make me laugh. No wonder the Finns spend their lives pouring Absolut down their throats and inventing mobile phones while out on the lakes fighting mosquitoes.

And a company I used to work with - Vesi-Pekka Oy - is pronounced "Vessi PekkO" - emphasis on the last "O". (The Oy is the equivalent of Co., Ltd. / PLC). So how is the Finnish clear in this instance?

I hope you've finished now Hump

One of the smartest and most successful guys I know, is Dyslexic. I do agree that something is wrong in the teaching methods currently used but intelligence cannot be measured by literacy alone.

Nope.

More rants later - maybe over the weekend.

One of the smartest and most successful guys I know, is Dyslexic. I do agree that something is wrong in the teaching methods currently used but intelligence cannot be measured by literacy alone.

Strange name that. Is he russian ?

Sure, there's the odd superfluous "u" in "ou" combos , but  I disagree with the research.  It's nothing more than a purposeful dumbing down of the populace to more easily control them.  Science hasn't progressed to the point where they can grow the kids in test tubes in incubation warrehouses where they can cripple their minds pre-birth for menial lifelong  jobs.  While we wait for that this 'research" seems to be the best they can come up with to establish the Delta workforce.  It's a Brave New World.

 ?

Learning any language requires self discipline. Learning English ( English, English ) sets you up for world domination !!!!........................( That and latin )

there was a guy I knew, Henryk, that was polish and spoke german, french and english fluently...he said a long time ago that hungarian/magyar is related to finnish and that both languages were very difficult for people with western linguistic sensibilities to learn...

he didn't have much money as a language teacher and never went to the dentist; he preferred to spend what he had on Gauloise and expresso...he didn't have many teeth left although he was still in his 20s about 40 years ago...

looks like the researcher's parents couldn't spell either, they missed the r in her name

The Americans simplified the spelling of the English language to a certain degree.

I think we acquired a better education in the days when it was hard. It was a more realistic preparation for the things that were hard when we left school.

Jobs, relationships, dealing with travel agents. (Don't get me started).

English spelling hasn't changed much in the last 170 years. Use of some words has dropped, many new words introduced.

In all that time Britain rose to the top of the heap, then slid down again.

And none of the kids complained about the spelling, although the constant practice of copper-plate handwriting was hard.

But now there is a deterioration in the kids learning ability, according to this 'expert'. So what has changed?

According to Masha it is the difficulty of spelling - which is about the only constant over this past 170 years. Which makes her argument risible.

In my opinion it is the dumbing-down of the entire culture that is depriving the kids of the chance to shine.

Or maybe it's too many immigrants.

Or maybe the global warming is affecting the new-born brains.

Or maybe it's smoking / second-hand smoke.

Or maybe it's too many Big Mac's.

Or maybe it's too many cell-phone calls affecting the brain.

There could be a thousand factors that have led to the statement by this expert that kids are not learning as well as they did many years ago - but is even that statement true?

The woman needs her head examined.

And needs to be kept well away from any educational establishment.

Simply put.

Dumb down and get dummies. ..............

Simply put.

Dumb down and get dummies. ..............

who will pay any tax levied and happily consume whtever is on offer.

Well she's only following the mantra of het political masters "If people fail the test we must make the test easier. Easier tests mean more people with qualifications. More people with qualifications means that the education system is getting better".

Someone needs to tell her that the Labour party lost the election.

I read this cr@p in the Telegraph this morning and it made me feel sick. But then remembering back to one of my last visits to the UK a large proportion of the young communicate in a series of monosyllabillic grunts that a Neanderthal would understand perfectly.

HB, you are right to rant but it'll do no good the UK is fast becoming the land of the lowest common denominator.

When I was at school, we had to compose and write answers to questions.

Now a person may have a vague idea of an answer.

All one needs do is tick an appropriate box.

"Hey, I am clever."

.......and get a pass.

The ultimate dumbing down, no need to think.

Hey!! I'm not the only old fart on this board!!

Everyone's saying "It's not like it was when I was young!"

But with my (UK) daughter a teacher and my own keenness on education, this Masha Bell really got up my nose.

I have to agree with others here. My daughter and he husband are both teachers in the modern world. Their main problem is they have to deal with the deficiencies in parent today. All school really does is instil the interest in learning in children. Children are like sponges and absorb everything around them. Make things too easy and they will turn off. Make things interesting and they'll swarm around like bees to honey.

there was a guy I knew, Henryk, that was polish and spoke german, french and english fluently...he said a long time ago that hungarian/magyar is related to finnish and that both languages were very difficult for people with western linguistic sensibilities to learn...

Hungarian is supposed to be one of the hardest languages in the world to learn. Their nouns have 35 cases.

Indeed so, As is their affinity with Finland. In the " Winter War " against the Russians in 1939, the Hungarians were one of the first to send a "legion" to Finland to help their somehow linguistically connected brethren,