As many of you know I teach ESL to children at an elementary school. They of course study spelling every day and work very hard at it. Honestly I'm in awe of their ability to develop vocabulary and grammar in two languages simultaneously and get high grades on their Friday spelling quizzes. Interestingly ( at least to me) is that they have never asked why a word is spelled that way.
I also teach adults at a local college, various levels of speaking and writing. Last semester I taught Advanced ESL Writing and none of those students questioned English spelling either.
I on the other hand can get a bit compulsive if I don't understand something so I began learning more of the why's of spelling. The rules can be a bit complex to understand or even remember in a 2nd language so perhaps my students have it right.
What I did find that I think is great is an ESL video about the origin of the English language. It has exercises at the end, listening and reading and even a few pictures. I think it's pretty cool.
Voice of America How English Evolved
click the link above for video
speaking is important as writing. But for a non native speaker, if you'll stick yourself on the rule to communicate with native speaker, you'll find in disappointing and frustrating.
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It was not uncommon to find such people runningschools in their mother tongue. As time went by and the country started blending, such people had to bring in English for instruction in school
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