The Dutch language consists of about 60 million words. Of course man does not know every word and there are many words that have not been used for years. Yet there are a lot of words that are taught and that every person uses. The average human vocabulary consists of about 50,000 words. That of a child is a lot less and grows every year. They still have to learn the words and of course also learn to write. To explain the spelling of all these words to the children, primary school teachers use three instructional principles: by analogy reasoning, by spelling rules and by imprinting.
Teaching through analogy reasoning
This is also called the ‘just like rule’. This is because comparisons are always made with words you already know. It is then about the sound; for example hold in untenable, you write just like keep. When a child knows how to write dangerously, he / she also knows the words: actually, delicious and difficult. By practicing a lot, the children also see the comparisons themselves. Root words / peg words or example words are used in the lessons.
Analog reasoning is mainly used for words with prefixes (be, ge and ver) and suffixes (ig, ikke, ness). In addition, it is very useful for teaching the open and closed syllables. You write the word ‘handsome’ just like crazy, fat, stupid and thin.
Learning spelling rules
When teaching the spelling rules, rules are used to explain the spelling of a word. Phrases such as: “If you hear x in situation y, you write z”.
A well-known spelling rule is: “If you hear luck at the end of a word, you write -like”.
There are two ways to learn the spelling rules:
- Deductive way: The rules are taught in advance and the children must then apply the rule to all cases that qualify. So you go from line to examples.
- Inductive way: The students themselves must find out the rules on the basis of examples. So you move from examples to rules.
Well-known rules
- Pure words: write down what you hear.
- The extension rule: extending a word to hear whether it is with a ‘t’ or a ‘d’.
- The doubling rule: after a short vowel, the consonant is doubled.
- The singulation rule: a long vowel is written at the end of a syllable with only one character.
Learning via imprinting
Imprinting is all about the child just having to know or actually remember it. These are words to which you cannot devote a rule or logic. These words are then taught to the children through imprinting. Think of words like: chic, snack or sauce. This is actually the etymological principle: the origin determines the spelling of a word or speech sound. There used to be a difference in speech of the word ‘he’, they then gave the words different letters: hei and he. Eventually the words were pronounced the same again, but the difference remained.
However, there are also words where you first have to know the meaning before you know how to write those words. These words are also called homophones. This way you only know how to write it when extra explanation is given about the word check / tobacco. Extra explanation must also be given about the words mourning and raw before you know what form they are talking about. You can also think of words with the s or z and f or v.
Imprinting uses visual dictations. The child examines the word briefly and then writes it down. In addition, there can also be a form in which the word is shown briefly and after which a part must be completed. Children first learn the words with the ij and ou. Next, the egg and au are the exceptions that are instilled in them.