PHONETIC SPELLING.

Press, Volume XL, Issue 5755, 28 February 1884, Page 5

PHONETIC SPELLING.

TO THB BDITOB OF THB F-UCSBV Sib, —r was glad to see in the report, of one of the meetings of the Educational. Institute some days since that the subject of phonetic spelling as a means of teaching the art of. reading was introduced in a paper by Mr Cape Williamson.; and I have since read with interest the letter of. "A Member of the Phonetic Society" on the same subject. But it appears to mc that sufficient prominence has not been given to the educational aspect of the question, either by your correspondent or by the members of the Institute.. And yet from the abstract of Mr Williamson', paper 'furnished in your report it would appear that it was particularly that view which he presented, and which, if. your report was at all indicative of the tone of the .discussion which followed, the members of the Institute either overlooked or ignored. As the Bubject is an eminently practical one this is the more remarkable. Mr Williamson showed that by. using the phonetic alphabet in teaching reading, the time occupied in that work could be very much shortened;. and as a further proof of the extent to which the process of teaching may be abbreviated, I may mention that some years since a gentleman in Ireland interested in the phonetic system for its educational value sent a circular to all the head teachers in the various National Schools within a certain radius, asking them to try the system in a single class in each school, and report results. The matter was taken up by'a large number of teachers, and the general effect of their testimony was this,, that it takes from three to three and a half years on the average to teach a child to read the common print with moderate fluency, whereas by the phonetic system the same thing can be accomplished in from eight months to one year, including the transition from the phonetic to the common print, which is described as a very easy process. Here, then, is a practical method of virtually adding two years at least to the school life of our children. Let the question of the general adoption of phonetic spelling be left in abeyance for the present, while we concern ourselves with this more practical question. In conclusion I may inform your correspondent " Enquirer " that if phonetic reading books cannot be procured here they may be obtained from Mr F. Pitman, of Paternoster Row, London. Yours, &c., PHONOTTPH.