1. TOPIC 10. ORTHOGRAPHIC CODE OF
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. PHONEME
-GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS. DIDACTIC
PROPOSALS FOR THE WRITTEN CODE.
APPLICATION OF ORTHOGRAPHY IN
WRITTEN PRODUCTION.

2. INTRODUCTION
A Language’s orthography is the body of
standardized rules for its writing system.
“Orthography” is often used synonym of
“spelling” but also deals with other elements
such as punctuation and capitalization.
English language is famously difficult for its
complex spelling rules. As stated in Royal
Decree 1513/ 2006, students have to learn the
four language skills (listening, speaking, reading
and writing). Orthography is an essential part of
written communication.

3. ORTHOGRAPHIC CODE
English language has often little correspondence between spoken
(pronunciation) and written (spelling).
• English orthographic rules did not begin to solidify until
around the time of Geoffrey Chaucer and the advent of the
printing press.
• The eclipsing of English by French during the Norman
Conquest where a large number of loan words, without
anglicised, were incorporated into the lexicon.
• The “great vowel shift” was a period of radical changes in
English pronunciation taking place between 1450 and 1750.
Writing (and therefore spelling) is a graphic representation of the spoken word.
Consequently, nearly every sound can be legitimately spelled in more than
one way, and many spellings can be pronounced in more than one way.

4. English spelling rules
• To form past simple of the regular verbs adding “ed” or
“ing” to create the gerund form. E.g. work/ worked/
working. Irregular verbs are unpredictable and have
three forms e.g. eat/ ate/ eaten.
• Many adverbs are formed adding “ly” to adjectives
(manner adverbs). E.g. slow/ slowly.
• To form most comparatives and superlatives adding “er”
and “est” to adjectives. E.g. fast/ faster/ fastest. We use
“more” and “most” when an adjective has more than one
syllable.
• To form the plural, add “s” to the end of the word. E.g.
dog/ dogs.
• Capital letters: the first letter of a word is capitalized in
proper nouns (specific person, place or thing. E.g.
London) and when is followed by a point.
But even the best rules have their exceptions.

5. British and American spelling
Webster (*) English
American
English
Final -l is always doubled after one vowel in
stressed and unstressed syllables in English
but usually only in stressed syllables in
American English.(*)
rebel > rebelled
travel > travelled
rebel > rebelled
travel > traveled
Some words end in -tre in English and -ter
in American English.(*)
centre/ theatre center/ theater
Some words end in -ogue in English and
-og in American English.
analogue/ catalogue analog/ catalog
Some words end in -our in English and -or
in American English.(*)
colour/ labour color/ labor
Some verbs end in –ize (Oxford spelling) or
-ise in English but only in -ize in American
English.
realise, realize
harmonise, harmonize
realize/ harmonize

6. PHONEME -GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS
• Vowels can be defined as linguistic sounds produced with
a relatively open vocal tract ad little impedance to airflow.

7. PHONEME -GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS
A consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with
complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract.

8. PHONEME -GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS
•Glides or Diphthongs are combinations of two
vowels which form a single syllable. They have
the same length as long than pure vowels. The
stress in the glides appears on the first element.
In English we can find eight glides:
•Semivowels: We can find two consonants that
share characteristics of vowels and consonants.
They are /j/ and /w/. They are pronounced like
vowels but we use them like consonants since
they appear before vowels.

9. DIDACTIC PROPOSALS FOR ORTHOGRAPHY
1. Controlled practice: the teacher concentrates on the usage of words
and sentences. We can use games such as Bingo; match the picture
with its word or definition, Hangman, order the letters of a word, order
the words in a sentence, spelling dictation, etc.
2. Directed practice: the teacher concentrates on definitions,
descriptions, letters, and easy written compositions. Students can
create language on their own by following certain patterns or using
templates. E.g. Pen pals. They can complete a text with words from a
word bank (Fill the gap activities), punctuate the text, find mistakes and
correct them, order parts of a text, etc.
3. Free practice: the teacher gives freedom to students to write without a
pattern or guide. They can use the dictionary to check words, write
about the topic they prefer and use this information to create a poster
to be hung on the classroom wall, etc.
The ability to write (of which orthography is an essential component) is
obviously related to the ability to read. Written production can not,
therefore, happen prior to written comprehension.

10. Teacher’s strategies for correcting
• The words that frequently appear printed in texts
or reading activities are easy to remember and,
therefore, learners don’t often make mistakes
when spelling them.
• Correct all mistakes is not very good for the
students, since they have little incentive to think
about what they did wrong.
• Emphasise the mistakes that we consider the
most important.
• Point out the errors, providing only basic
information about the type of error, allowing the
students to correct them themselves. We can
mark grammatical error using (gr), spelling errors
(sp), etc.

11. Teacher’s strategies for correcting
• Associate errors with an image.
• Write down the misspelled word several
times.
• Look up its definition in the dictionary.
• Add it to his or her personal spelling
dictionary for quick future reference.
• Additionally, teachers can provide a list of
the most commonly misspelled words for
the students.