The Spell of Language is organized and structured for five categories of students:

Beginning learners

• already know
  • the names of letters of the alphabet;
  • a few, if any, words in the Primer-Level list;
  • some sound/spelling correspondences for consonants; and
  • a few sound/spelling correspondences for vowels
• and are taught
  • unknown consonant and vowel sounds;
  • Primer-Level word list;
  • Automaticity/Fluency Consonant Pack and 18-Card Vowel Pack; and
  • Sound/Spelling Fluency Worksheets, 1–12.

Developing learners

• already know
  • many or most words in the Primer-Level list;
  • most sound/spelling correspondences for consonants; and
  • some sound/spelling correspondences for vowels
• and are taught
  • unknown consonant and vowel sounds
  • Primer-Level word list or beginning The 600 Most Commonly Used Words (MCUW 600);
  • Automaticity/fluency Consonant Pack and 18-Card Vowel Packs;
  • Sound/Spelling Fluency Worksheets, 1–12;
  • Primer-Level Spelling;
  • First-Grade Spelling;
  • Level 1 Supplementary Grammar Lessons; and
  • reading connected text.

Learners with confusions among similarly spelled words

• already know
  • many or most words from the MCUW 600 list, albeit with confusions and reluctance to engage in their phonological structures
• and are taught
  • Automaticity/Fluency 18-Card Vowel Pack — then 48-Card Vowel Pack;
  • grade-level spelling and grammar;
  • MCUW 300 spelling;
  • See/Say Sounds;
  • learning the Most Commonly Used Words;
  • reading connected text;
  • Bridge to Polysyllabic Words;
  • spell polysyllabic words; and
  • pencil break, then eye-break polysyllabic nonsense words.

Learners who decode close to grade-level expectations but experience confusions among interior and ending syllables or spell poorly

• already know
  • most words expected at grade level, albeit with confusions among interior and ending syllables
• and are taught
  • Automaticity/Fluency 18-Card Vowel Pack — then 48-Card Vowel Pack;
  • grade-level spelling, grammar, and MCUW 300 spelling;
  • Bridge to Polysyllabic Words;
  • spell polysyllabic words; and
  • pencil-break,then eye-break polysyllabic nonsense words.

Learners who are ready to learn the morphological structure of English

• already know
  • most words expected at grade level
• and are taught
  • Bridge to Polysyllabic Words and morphology lessons.

(English Language Learners are instructed within the five categories according to their particular needs.)

Informal testing further enables teachers to determine the strength of basic skills, establish baselines, and measure progress made in instruction. Its structure makes it possible to:

• determine baselines for the most basic skills needed for students to become proficient in reading and spelling; and
• ascertain the progress of a student, or a class, through teaching without administering formal tests.

(Typical formal testing is designed to rank the performance of students or of a particular group and to provide useful information at the classroom, school, and district level in the attainment of particular goals. The design of formal testing does not allow the use of enough test items to determine the strength of the basic/foundation skills which underlie advanced skills.)

Documenting the progress or specific skill deficits of young or beginning students provides information that enables teachers to determine the need for RTI (Response to Intervention).

Success in instructing students of all abilities to spell — even those who failed for years and lacked confidence — led the authors to conclude that almost all students can learn to spell if they have learned the vowel system and if they learn to apply the alphabetic principle* as they learn to read and spell new words whether words are phonetically regular or irregular.

The underlying model used has been our analysis of how phonologically competent students learn the fundamental elements of English and how they use tacit knowledge (understood without needing to be brought to full consciousness). We have concluded that fundamental elements are learned as patterns rather than rules. If learning of the requisite phonological skills has occurred at expected levels, words with morphological structures are present in students' mental lexicons and are available for analysis. What students already know can be extended, first, to understanding the morphological structure of English and, second, to acquiring more advanced vocabulary.

In summary, we defer to the knowledge that efficiency depends on recognition of most words as “sight words,” on speed of processing, and on availability of word meanings for words recognized. Our experience confirms these results: when students with reading difficulties learn to spell the high-frequency words and content-area words appropriate to their grade levels, their reading levels likewise improve.

All of this applies whether students are young and just beginning to read or are older and read inefficiently. This also applies to adults who experience reading or spelling difficulty or to people whose first language is not English.

*The alphabetic principle - the theoretical mechanism by which letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language has complex requirements. Phonemic awareness - sensitivity to the number, identity, and order of sounds - is a necessary component, as is a thorough knowledge of sound/spelling correspondences. A lack of sound/spelling correspondent knowledge results in sensing when something has been misread or misspelled without being able to correct errors, the consequence being that searches of mental lexicons must be made for matches based on context — a slow and mentally effortful process.

The vowel system of English occupies an important niche, which is infrequently recognized. Mastery is necessary for proficient reading and spelling, especially of polysyllabic words; moreover, it requires accurate perception of each vowel sound. The Spell of Language exercises enable teachers to assess accurate knowledge, perception, and production as students learn the vowel system.

In 1971, a study of linguistic aspects of error patterns in reading consonants and vowels revealed that vowels, unlike consonants, were heard correctly but were frequently misread. Although a research design was outlined and recommended to determine if the errors were due to perceptual difficulty or to orthographic complexity, the study did not occur; consequently, the roles of vowel and consonant sounds are given equal weight in the reading literature.

Research proposed to expose the curious nature of vowels more than 40 years ago was not implemented, and, subsequently, it has been neglected. It has been necessary, therefore, to teach vowel proficiency without a well-researched, theoretical basis such as exists for other phonological skills. The lack of vowel knowledge confronts almost all students who struggle to learn written-language skills.

Vowels present more difficulty for readers and spellers than consonants even though there are relatively few of them, and a vowel sound occurs in every syllable. Research has established that early exposure to language alters the physical structure of the brain and affects reading readiness. In addition, students who struggle in learning to spell very often lack vowel proficiency. In our practices, we have found that the inclusion of intensive and explicit instruction in vowel knowledge and vowel perception changes the trajectory of students' learning to read and spell. We have developed a scope and sequence of skills necessary to teach vowel sounds and their spelling correspondences. We have empirical evidence that our approach works for students of any ability.

Rather than attempting to teach vowel spelling correspondences through spelling — a recurring objective of most commercial spelling programs — The Spell of Language presents the vowel system as a classification which, when known, makes spelling tasks easier. This feature has been essential to the success of the program. In our experience, this explicit and systematic instruction in vowel knowledge and perception improves the language performance of all students.

It is our experience that students learn fundamental written-language (as well as oral-language) skills best when they interact with knowledgeable adults who have themselves spent their lives attaining language skills. It is our belief that all students deserve the opportunity to learn from these teachers and that use of computer technology should support teaching, not replace it.

*Fluency — The importance of the concept of fluency is recognized in research and most mainstream teaching methods. Beginning fluency training at the level of reading connected text, however, jeopardizes success when more basic, or 'foundation', skills are weak (proficiently naming letters, producing the sounds that they make, and recognizing frequently occurring words).

**The Alphabetic Principle — Appreciating and applying the alphabetic principle have their own complex requirements. Phonemic awareness is a necessary component, but the absence of a thorough knowledge of sound/spelling correspondences results in sensing when something has been misread or misspelled without being able to correct errors. As a result there must be a search of mental lexicons for matches based on context — a slow and mentally effortful process.