Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenophon
kazbates:
The best thing that ever happened to my spelling and vocabulary was when my Grandmother decided I should learn about Latin, Greek, and Germanic/Anglo-Saxon root-words, their spellings and their meanings. If you can identify those and conjugate them (is conjugate really the word I'm looking for?) you can figure your way through most of English quite nicely.
Of course it doesn't help with the words that are borrowed from other languages, made up, or otherwise odd. But it does cover a surprising fraction of the words you need, while giving them a unified framework.
Xenophon
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Obviously, your Grandmother was a very wise woman! We just don't have time to teach the basics behind many of our words. I would like to say we aren't teaching to the standardized tests, but since a teacher's job perfomance is tied to how well
a child does on these tests... Well, I'm sure you know where I am going with this!
It's a vicious cycle and one I can't see ending any time soon.
Kaz