Spelling is a difficult task, particularly in orthographies where letters and sounds do not have one-to-one correspondence. In English, for example, vowel sounds can be spelled in as many as five different ways. In line with evidence that we do not just memorize difficult spellings, my work has been investigating spellers’ sensitivity to untaught spelling rules and patterns.
-Can young spellers pick up on untaught orthographic conventions such as “gz is an illegal spelling of a frequent word-final sound combination in English; *bagz” from simple text exposure?