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About the books
The Inside Story on English Spelling
This book explains why English spelling is so difficult, much harder than most other languages. It answers many questions, like ‘Why doesn’t HIS have a Z?’ and ‘What’s O doing in WON and why is GH in THROUGH?’ or ‘What’s the point of silent letters?’ Also, ‘Why were Biblical FRUTE and TUNG discarded in favour of FRUIT and TONGUE?' and 'Is English the victim of a class plot?’
The many rules and codes which govern English spelling are explained and become keys to hidden treasure, the cultural inheritance of all English-speaking people. Spelling is presented as a game as serious as any sport, with as many rules and as many game changes. After reading this book you’ll actually enjoy spelling and no longer view English as ‘a funny language without many spelling rules’, which is the current standard reply to questions on spelling. Instead, you will want to share the inside story of English spelling with young and old.
Spelling Rules, Reasons and Rebels
as you Learn to Read
This book provides the rules needed to read English words. It gives the reasons behind the rules. Below each rule is a list of all the words which obey the rule, also those which break the rule, the rebels, and explains their reasons for doing so.
As you can see in the free sample at Buy the Books, using the first reading rule, Rule 1-1, the learner can read three hundred and twenty words — fifty more, if we include some proper nouns (personal names and place names) at the end of the list. Like playing with a bat and ball, the learner enjoys reading straight away. New rules are introduced one by one, the same way we learn tennis and cricket, or any game for that matter.
By the end of Part One, the learner can read 3,600 words, including 80 of the 100 words which we use the most. The next three sections introduce increasingly complex words, carefully listed so that learners will not meet a word they cannot decode. BRAN is in Part Two but BROOCH is later, in Part Three. BREAD is not listed until it is fully decoded, in Part Four. The book is long, but not daunting if taken step by step, along the ‘road to reading’.