Spelling mistakes

Questions and answers
Spelling mistakes
The question
Spelling mistakesSanthosh KumarKana. India. I would like to be advised on how to help children and college students overcome 'spelling mistakes'. They can be given dictation, but this is not possible everyday Please suggest methods to bring them to the right spelling of words.
Your answers
Ahmed Sahloub, EgyptTo find a remedy for the problem of spelling mistakes, we can use flash cards with words that have missing letters and ask learners to fill in that missing letter in each word. The words we choose should be those which students frequently mis-spell. The missing letters should also be well selected to help students focus on the spelling problems. For example, the word 'foreign' could be put on a flash card like this: 'for-ign' or 'fore-gn' or 'forei-n' and so on. Another technique is that we can give the students a word like "teacher" and let them form as many words as possible from its letters and in any order. They will find words like: at, tea, ate, her, here, hear, ear, cheer, act, rat, cat, hat ... and many other words.
Ab Wali Karimi, AfghanistanFrom my point of view, you regularly need to give the students five to ten words per day to memorize and then test them the next day
Jorge Pineda, ColombiaI think the best way to correct spelling mistakes is to use a code that I first heard of during a conference called ELT, which takes place in Medellin, Colombia and is held by the Centro Colomboamericano. This code allows the teacher to communicate with the students by telling them where the mistake is and what sort of mistake it is but the students have to figure out how to correct it. I have used this code in my writing courses and it has always worked for me and my students. This is the code if any of you are interested.
WW2 = wrong word.Wo = word order.Exp = expression not natural.Gr = grammar.Sp = spelling.T = verb tense.? = what????? meaning not clear.Syn = synonym.( ) = omit.C = capitalization.// = new paragraph.
The students have to re-write their paper after having been corrected using the code, then the student hand in the second draft which can be corrected using the code in order to have a third draft. This assures a very well-written final version of a paper.
Reza Shafaiy, AfghanistanSpelling mistakes can be overcome but the many different methods depend on the ability of the person. One way which has often had good results is to write the word with which you have a problem as many times as possible till it seems easy to write without any spelling mistakes. This method has been told to a number of students with spelling problems, the result after a while was satisfactory.
Elinor, EnglandI often have a mini spelling test each week (about 10 words). You could try this and have a prize, for example a sticker. For some reason, children love stickers! I sometimes do written work and have it mounted and put on the wall - everyone likes having their work on the wall, but they don't like it when there are lots of mistakes! After I have taught new vocabulary, at the end of the lesson I play word games using the new vocabulary. This makes the end of the lesson fun and hopefully helps the students to remember the words. These are just a few suggestions I can think of - I hope this helps!
Sue, UKPersonally, I feel that spelling mistakes are common and teachers do not need to force students to master them. Nowadays, computers do all the work. Even a native speaker wouldn't spell all the words correctly all the time. Correction of the error on a handwritten essay can help students know that they get certain spelling wrong, so in the future they would look it up in the dictionary and find the correct spelling themselves.