One Afternoon in an Elysian Field: Socrates'

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Page 1

Cambourne uses a fanciful dialogue between Socrates and his

followers to present some powerful findings about spelling

development.

(A play in one act)

(With apologies to Socrates and his translators)

Cast of Characters

Alexander

Hippocrates

Anaximander

Lexon

Artemis the Younger

Socrates

Glaucon

Students

Scene

An olive grove just outside of ancient Athens. It is a balmy

spring afternoon. Socrates and some of his students have as-

sembled in the grove to discuss some issues which had

emerged from the morning session. Socrates is seated on a

rock in the shade of a tree. His toga-clad students are sitting

on the grass around him.

During the morning they had discussed the work of two

famous scholars, Professors Frank Smith and Stephen

Krashen. They had been particularly interested in the views

that each held about spelling. They had prepared some pa-

pyrus charts on which they'd summarised the conclusions

they'd come to that morning. These were hanging from the

lower branches of the olive tree near Socrates' rock. Socrates

draws the students' attention to these summary charts (Fig-

ures 1 and 2) and begins teaching.

S O C R AT E S :

Do you not think that

Professor Smith and Pro-

fessor Krashen have left

us with some questions

which demand answers?

S T U D E N T S :

Yes beloved teacher, they

have.

S O C R AT E S :

And what might these

questions be?

G L A U C O N :

Professor Smith begs us to

answer this question:

"How do all these

L A N G U A G E A R T S , V O L . 7 5 , N O . 2 , F E B R U A R Y 1 9 9 8

B R I A N C A M B O U R N E

One Afternoon in an Elysian Field:

Socrates' Academy Addresses Spelling

Page 2

L A N G U A G E A R T S , V O L . 7 5 , N O . 2 , F E B R U A R Y 1 9 9 8

spellings get inside an ef-

fective speller's head?"

S O C R AT E S :

Your logic is impeccable,

Glaucon. And what ques-

tion might Professor

Krashen's work beg?

L E X O N :

Master, could it be thus:

"How does the mere act

of free voluntary reading

produce what he terms

`adequate spellers'?"

S O C R AT E S :

Your logic is also good

Lexon. Can we rephrase

Lexon's question?

A L E X A N D E R :

Teacher, could Lexon's

question be restated thus:

"What is the reading-

spelling connection?"

S O C R AT E S :

Yes Alexander, but per-

haps that is not all there

is. Let us keep Alexander's

paraphrase in mind. We

shall return to it later.

G L A U C O N :

Master, how might we an-

swer these questions? Will

you guide us?

S O C R AT E S :

Dear Glaucon, guidance is

one of a teacher's main re-

sponsibilities. Of course I

shall guide you. Let us

begin by considering a

few possible answers to

the question which Pro-

fessor Smith's work seems

to beg: "How do all these

spellings get inside an ef-

fective speller's head?

What is one thing that

teachers might do to get

all these spellings inside a

learner's head?"

A N A X I M A N D E R :

Could teachers of spelling

increase the number of

words that must be

learned each week, so

that the figure which Pro-

fessor Smith claims can

be achieved?

S O C R AT E S :

Let us consider Anaxi-

mander's hypothesis: If

the average student at-

tends school for twelve

years and the average

school year is of 40 weeks

duration, that means

there would be 12 × 40

weekly spelling lists that

could be learned and re-

tained. If we round out

Professor Smith's figure to

50,000 words, how many

words per week would

have to be taught to

achieve this figure?

Figure 1. A summary of our discussion of Professor

Smith's thinking

Children learn to spell by reading and writing (Smith, 1988)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

Students correctly spell 50,000 words by the age of 18.

IF: 20 words per week X

52 weeks per year X

13 years =

13,520 words

50,000

13,520

36,480

How do students learn to spell the remaining 36,480 words?

Figure 2. A summary of our discussion of Professor

Krashen's thinking

After reviewing over a hundred studies on the impact of free

reading on literacy, and reanalyzing the data from these studies,

Krashen (1993) concludes thus:

My conclusions are quite simple. When children read for plea-

sure, when they get "hooked on books," they acquire, involun-

tarily and without conscious effort, nearly all of the so-called

"language skills" many people are so concerned about: They

will become adequate readers, acquire a large vocabulary, de-

velop the ability to understand and use complex grammatical

constructions, develop a good writing style, and become good

(but not necessarily perfect) spellers. Although free voluntary

reading alone will not ensure attaining the highest levels of lit-

eracy, it will at least ensure an acceptable level. Without it, I

suspect children simply do not have a chance.

(p. 84)

Page 3

O N E A F T E R N O O N I N A N E LY S I A N F I E L D

G L A U C O N :

It would mean that ap-

proximately 105 words

per week would need to

be drilled and tested

every week for 12 years,

Master.

S O C R AT E S :

You were always good at

mathematics, Glaucon.

Yes, about 105 words per

week from K12. As there

are five days in a typical

school week this would

mean that all students

would have to learn 21

words each day for every

day of their school ca-

reers. It would also mean

that no student could

ever miss a day's school-

ing through illness or

other misadventure. They

would have to continue

this rate of learning

through every school day,

ill or not. As for snow

days, who knows what

would be done then? Is

all this feasible?

H I P P O C R AT E S :

The feasibility of Glau-

con's hypothesis depends

on many things, Master.

S O C R AT E S :

Such as what, my pupil?

H I P P O C R AT E S :

Well Master, there is re-

search that indicates that

in order to get a sequence

of 5 unrelated digits in-

side an adult human's

long term memory be-

tween 30 and 60 seconds

of hard concentration is

necessary.

Given this

finding, it suggests that

daily spelling sessions

would need to be be-

tween 10.5 and 21.0 min-

utes long each day

assuming the only words

that were to be learned

were all five letters in

length. This, as we all

know, is not a plausible

assumption. There are

many words which are

longer than five letters. I

doubt we could even as-

sume five words was an

average length of all the

words that good spellers

seem to learn. Further-

more these figures were

generated using adult

subjects in contrived lab-

oratory situations. I doubt

younger learners would

be able to carry out such

tasks in the same time

that adults can. No Mas-

ter, the more I think

about it, the more Anaxi-

mander's hypothesis be-

comes untenable. It is an

hypothesis which is based

on many untenable as-

sumptions about the

length of words and the

nature of human learning

and human development.

G L A U C O N :

I was going to suggest

that effective spellers

might have made 50,000

trips to the dictionary and

memorised the words that

way. However my fellow-

student's calculations tell

me that this cannot be so.

S O C R AT E S :

Are there any other plau-

sible explanations which

could answer Professor

Smith's question?

A R T E M I S T H E Y O U N G E R :

Well Teacher, I was think-

ing that it could be ex-

plained by a combination

of phonemic generaliza-

tions and rules. Rather

than learn all 50,000

words, could not effective

spellers have merely

learned a much smaller

set of words with a set of

generalizations and rules

that would enable them

to generate new words

that went beyond the

basic list?

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L A N G U A G E A R T S , V O L . 7 5 , N O . 2 , F E B R U A R Y 1 9 9 8

S O C R AT E S :

What think you others of

the younger Artemis's hy-

pothesis?

A L E X A N D E R :

Me thinks it has great

promise.

S O C R AT E S :

Why?

A L E X A N D E R :

Well Master, if we can as-

sume that the written form

of language is highly pho-

netically regular, and if we

could assume that a finite

set of rules could be ap-

plied to that small number

of irregularities which re-

main, it would surely

mean that the load on

memory would be signifi-

cantly reduced, thus mak-

ing it possible for Professor

Smith's effective spellers to

have internalized 50,000

correct spellings that can

be immediately retrieved

on demand.

S O C R AT E S :

The key phrase you have

used is "if we can assume.

Can we assume what

your hypothesis asks us

to assume?"

[

LONG SILENCE

]

H I P P O C R AT E S :

Master, I doubt that we

can make those assump-

tions.

S O C R AT E S :

Wherein lies your doubt?

H I P P O C R AT E S :

Master, there is evidence

that the written form of

our language is only

about 40% phonemically

regular, and that for every

phonic and/or spelling

generalization there are at

least two, often more ex-

ceptions to the rule. A

group of researchers

once examined the 6,092

one- and two-syllable

words among 9,000 dif-

ferent words in the com-

prehension vocabularies

of six- to nine-year-old

children. These re-

searchers discovered that

their 6,000+ words in-

volved 211 distinct

spelling-to-sound corre-

spondences. Of these 211

correspondences, 45 were

classified as exceptions.

This meant that over 10%

of the one- and two-sylla-

ble words had to be set

aside as `exceptions.' The

pronunciation of the re-

maining words was ac-

counted for by no less

than 166 rules. This was

only for 6,000 one- and

two-syllable words. I

would imagine that the

complexity and number

of these rules would in-

crease dramatically with

the 50,000 words that

adults can spell. Given

this kind of research,

Artemis's hypothesis is

being severely strained.

G L A U C O N :

Furthermore, there have

been rumours of some re-

searchers

who pro-

grammed a computer

with all of these phonic

generalisations and rules

and exceptions and then

asked it to spell the

10,000 most commonly

occurring K6 grade

words found in a commu-

nication skills program.

Rumour has it that the

computer scored poorly,

despite the fact that it had

these rules programmed

into it.

S O C R AT E S :

So far we have eliminated

three hypotheses that we

thought might address

Professor Smith's ques-

tion. Where do we go

from here?

A L E X A N D E R :

Where would you sug-

gest, O wise one?

Page 5

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O N E A F T E R N O O N I N A N E LY S I A N F I E L D

S O C R AT E S :

Let me reframe your

thinking. What is the

only activity that humans

engage in which would

provide 50,000 demon-

strations of the way words

are spelled in the time

that is available?

A N A X I M A N D E R :

(Tentatively) I can think

of only one master-

reading.

S O C R AT E S :

I agree. There is no other

activity that could supply

the demonstrations

needed to achieve such

spelling competency. Does

that mean that all who are

poor spellers will also be

poor readers?

A L L :

Yes Master. Our experi-

ences as teachers of others

confirms this. Those who

are not good readers are

rarely effective spellers.

S O C R AT E S :

Does this also mean that

all good readers will also

be effective spellers?

G L A U C O N :

No, Master. All of us have

met good readers who are

ineffective spellers? Is this

an example of a paradox?

S O C R AT E S :

Nay, Glaucon. Before we

begin creating paradoxes

let us try to think later-

ally. Hippocrates, you

were always a lateral

thinker. What think you

about this problem?

H I P P O C R AT E S :

Perhaps there are two

kinds of good readers?

Those who read only for

the purpose of compre-

hending the author's in-

tended meanings, and

those who read for two

purposes, namely to com-

prehend the author's

meanings

and

to engage

with the many demon-

strations provided by

texts they read. For some

reason, this second type

of reader seems to engage

with such things as the

way words are spelled,

the way paragraphs are

constructed, the way

punctuation is used, and

so on. Perhaps this sec-

ond group could be de-

scribed as "reading as if

they were writers?"

S O C R AT E S :

What mean you by "read-

ing as if they were writ-

ers"? Explain this term.

H I P P O C R AT E S :

It means that they engage

with the text they are

reading as if they are writ-

ers who love writing and

who are continually, often

subconsciously, searching

for information that will

enable them to fulfill their

great need to write for

others. I know that when

I decided to build a new

pig trough for my farm, I

suddenly found myself

paying very close atten-

tion to the pig troughs

that others had built. Be-

fore I made the decision

to become a pig-trough

builder I never engaged

with them at all. I also

began to engage pig-

trough builders in conver-

sations about the way

they went about doing

such a task. It's as if I

started to "read" the

demonstrations of fin-

ished pig troughs like a

professional or experi-

enced pig-trough builder,

once the authentic need

to build one was created.

A L E X A N D E R :

Bravo Hippocrates! This

hypothesis also helps ex-

plain the question Profes-

sor Krashen's work left for

us to solve. There is a

Page 6

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L A N G U A G E A R T S , V O L . 7 5 , N O . 2 , F E B R U A R Y 1 9 9 8

strong connection be-

tween reading and

spelling isn't there? That's

why he could make the

claims he made. I'm be-

ginning to understand.

S O C R AT E S :

Don't get too excited,

Alexander. There is still a

piece missing. Hippo-

crates' hypothesis was:

"Effective spellers get to

be that way because they

read as if they were writ-

ers." It's not just reading

that's involved, it's writing

too. Perhaps we should

adjust our statement to:

"There is a strong rela-

tionship between reading,

writing, and spelling."

What think you all of that

proposal?

S T U D E N T S :

We agree, O wise one.

S O C R AT E S :

I am tiring. It's time for

supper. Before we meet

again on the morrow I

want you all to consider

this problem: "How can

modern-day teachers cre-

ate classroom cultures

which will produce read-

ers who read like writers,

and therefore have a good

chance of becoming effec-

tive spellers"? Good mor-

row students.

A L L :

Good morrow, O wise

and wonderful Teacher.

(Curtain)

Notes

1. Anderson & Bower, 1973.

2. Berdiansky, Cronnell, & Koehler, 1969.

3. Rhode & Cronnell, 1977.

4. Brief news item,

The Reading Teacher, 34

(2). p. 159.

References

Anderson, J. R., & Bower, G. H. (1973).

Human associative mem-

ory,

Washington, DC: Winston.

Berdiansky, B., Cronnell, B., & Koehler, J. A., (1969).

Spelling-

sound relations and primary form-class descriptions for speech-

comprehension vocabularies of 69 year olds.

(Tech. Rep.

No. 15.). Los Alamitos, CA: Southwest Regional Laboratory

for Educational Research and Development.

Krashen, S. (1993).

The power of reading: Insights from the research.

Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited Inc.

Rhode, M., & Cronnell, B. (1977).

Compilation of a communication

skills lexicon coded with linguistic information.

(Tech. Rep.

No. 58.). Los Alamitos, CA: Southwest Regional Laboratory

for Educational Research and Development.

Smith, F. (1988) Reading like a writer. In F. Smith (Ed.),

Joining

the literacy club

(pp. 1731). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Brian Cambourne is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education

at the University of Wollongong where he spends most of his time

trying to understand how classrooms work and how teachers learn.