Sloppy conventional pronunciations -- those that are "correct" -- have eroded mass literacy.
My children have a phonics program that includes these words in the 'silent L' section:
walk
talk
calm
palm
The former pair of these words could be pronounced with at least some of the L to aid in understanding; but, I am almost angry with the suggestion that calm and palm should be pronounced sans the "L" sound. Later in the same booklet, the program suggests that "often" has a silent "T". I don't think so!
But even conventional toughies could be rendered tame with a little care. /wens-day/ could be pronounced /wed'ns-day/ and both the etymology and the presence of the "nes" in the middle of the word could be more easily remembered. If we pronounced the word /marr-y-aj/ rather than /marr-ij/, it would be easier to teach its meaning, its spelling, and the function of the "-age" suffix to a verb.
If we enunciated more clearly in society generally --or at least at home and in schools -- would it not be easier to educate (ed-yu-cate rather than ej-a-cate) children in spelling and vocabulary?
A little extra (ek-stra not eggs-tra) effort in speaking could reap dividends in literacy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
We cannot separate spelling from speaking and listening. If you mispronounce a word, you are much more likely to misspell it as well. But the reverse is certainly true as well: if people were more inclined to read good books and even a good newspaper once in a while this would likely help their spelling, writing and pronunciation. There. Have I left anybody out?
< all embarrased > Oh, it's "pronunciation" not "pronounciation"! I guess I got that wrong, huh?
< /all embarrased >
I ran into "expetially". Why do folks seem so ready to put an "X" in that word; but to drop it from, say, "eggstravaganza"?
Post a Comment