For adult learners and school pupils alike, mastering English spelling can be a daunting task. Silent letters, alternative spellings, and words that simply don’t follow the rules; it’s no wonder that many people struggle.
The English Spelling Society is hoping to change this.
Working alongside the American Literacy Council, this weekend the group announced plans to host the first International Spelling Congress.
The event, set to take place in late 2015, will aim to draw up a list of proposals for an improved English spelling system, which delegates will then vote on.
It follows a separate study published last year which revealed that 40 per cent of Britons rely on autocorrect technology to monitor their spelling and more than one in five would panic if they were forced to abandon this technology.
Commenting on the planned conference, Stephen Linstead, chairman of The English Spelling Society said: “The intention is that the preferred new system should run alongside traditional spelling as an informal alternative and, if it gains sufficient support among English speakers, would eventually replace it.”
He continued: “The case for updating traditional English spelling is based on the growing evidence that our extremely irregular spelling system has a substantial economic and social cost.
“When you consider the damning statistic that English speaking children take up to two years longer to acquire basic literacy skills than their counterparts in some other European countries and that 1 in 6 people in the UK are functionally illiterate with children no better at spelling than their parents’ generation, then there is a very strong case for re-evaluating English spelling.”
Formed in 1908, The English Spelling Society was created to raise awareness of the irregularity of English Spelling.
But, while the group has yet to produce “many concrete results”, Mr Linstead argued earlier in the year that the time could be right for “renewed interest in the subject”.
“The last attempt at statutory spelling change – the Spelling Reform bill of 1953 led by parliamentarian and Spelling Society member James Pitman – failed to elicit change,” said Mr Linstead in his article.
“Over the next few years, our priorities as a Society, will be to publicise existing evidence for the costs of traditional spelling, while encouraging more research in areas such as the levels of functional adult illiteracy in English speaking countries.”