6 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | WINTER 2008-2009 By R. Malatesha Joshi, Rebecca Treiman, Suzanne Carreker, and Louisa C. Moats I n 1773, Noah Webster stated that “spelling is the foundation of reading and the greatest ornament of writing.” 1 He was right. Good spelling is critical for literacy, and it makes writ- ing much easier—allowing the writer to focus on the ideas to be conveyed, not the letters needed to put those ideas on paper. But ever since Webster’s “spellers” (which focused on how to spell the sounds that make up words and thus taught spelling and read- ing simultaneously) went out of fashion in the early 1900s, spell- ing has not received as much attention as reading. his is unfor- tunate because spelling instruction underpins reading success by creating an awareness of the sounds that make up words and the letters that spell those sounds. As children learn to spell, their knowledge of words improves and reading becomes easier. 2 And yet, even though there is a close relationship between reading and spelling (the correlation between the two is quite strong, 3 ranging from 0.66 to 0.90, where 0 would indicate no correlation How Words Cast heir Spell Spelling Is an Integral Part of Learning the Language, Not a Matter of Memorization and 1 would indicate a perfect correlation), spelling in the ele- mentary grades is usually taught as an isolated skill, often as a visual task.* Collectively, the authors of this paper have eight decades of experience helping preservice and inservice teachers improve their instruction in spelling, reading, and writing. One common perception we have encountered is that visual memory, analo- gous to taking a mental picture of the word, is the basis of spelling skill. Teachers often tell us that they teach spelling by encourag- ing whole-word memorization (e.g., using lashcards and having students write words 5 or 10 times) or by asking students to close their eyes and imagine words. We’ve encountered this percep- tion that spelling relies on visual memory so many times that we became curious about when and how it originated—after all, it’s a far cry from Webster’s spellers. We traced it back to the 1920s: one of the earliest studies to stress the role of visual memory in spelling was published in 1926, and it found that deaf children spelled relatively well compared with normal children of similar reading experience. 4 Based on this study, and the perception that the relationship between sounds and the letters that spell them is highly variable, many people concluded that learning to spell is essentially a matter of rote memorization. hus, researchers recommended that spelling instruction emphasize the develop- ment of visual memory for whole words. 5 More recent studies, however, do not support the notion that visual memory is the key to good spelling. 6 Several researchers have found that rote visual memory for letter strings is limited to two or three letters in a word. 7 In addition, studies of the errors * Throughout this article, the research and instructional strategies discussed are about spelling in English; they may not apply to other languages. R. Malatesha Joshi is professor of literacy education at Texas A&M Uni- versity, author of numerous books and articles on reading and spelling, and founding editor of Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Jour- nal. Rebecca Treiman is Burke and Elizabeth High Baker Professor of Child Developmental Psychology at Washington University and author of dozens of studies on reading, writing, and spelling. Suzanne Carreker is vice president of program development at the Neuhaus Education Center, author of several language and literacy programs, and a former teacher and school consultant. Louisa C. Moats is consultant on profes- sional development and research initiatives for Sopris West Educational Services; author of several literacy programs, books, and reports, includ- ing the AFT’s Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science; and a former teacher and school psychologist. ILLUSTRATED BY MICHAEL WOLOSHINOW