From Valerie Yule
Philip Seymour has found that children learning to write are hindered by the
difficulties of English spelling
(8 September, p 9).
This adds weight to
accumulating research that compares the development of literacy in different
languages. Yet academics are still reluctant to investigate how English spelling
might be modified to be more user-friendly, even though most other major
languages have improved their writing systems in the past century.
Cognitive-psychological research is badly needed into how our present writing
system might be modified to better represent the spoken language. This requires
more than simply matching sounds.
Mount Waverley, Victoria
