English spelling is hard and needs to be taught explicitly, but most American schools fail miserably to teach children to spell. Kids who can't spell often do not read and write with proficiency ...

As a whole, English makes absolutely no sense. That becomes particularly evident in spelling. Consider the fictitious word "ghoti," an often cited example of English's confusing sounds. "Ghoti" ...

Johnny in Topeka can’t read, but Janne in Helsinki is effortlessly finishing his storybooks. Such a disparity may be expected by now, but the reason might come as a surprise: It probably has much less ...

If you're a kid learning how to write, or an adult speaker of a language with sensible spelling, English spelling can seem like a cruel prank. And even if you're a completely literate adult native ...

My 11-year-old student sighs. How can the same letters make so many different sounds? We are looking at the letter combination “ough”, which can be read in seven different ways: “through”, “thorough”, ...

Some parents give up helping their children with spelling long before they get to spelling bee words like "psychagogic" (attractive) or "fewtrils" (things of little value). That may be especially true ...

Many people were spellbound as they watched the newest Scripps National Spelling Bee champions — Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar — correctly sound out scherenschnitte and nunatak in order ...

For many Americans, spelling bees are a part of growing up in the United States. The challenge is obvious. From the moment kids begin to learn to read, there are clear differences between how words ...