Wrong Sounds, Not Spelling, Confuse Kids
Here is my response to a Tweet by one PeterDMayr on 23.12.2025 @PeterDMayr
I am sick and tired of countless people like Peter who speak as if they are experts in this field.
Peter says: “Kids are not dumb; the spelling system is. Research shows it delays learning to read by 2.5 years (Seymour, 2003) for most…”
But is it really the spelling system that delays learning for most? I have repeatedly said that the real problem lies in the teaching of wrong sounds of letters. About 80% of children are confused because of these wrong sounds. Fortunately, around 60% eventually figure out how to read, but the remaining 20% are wrongly classified as dyslexic. This misclassification is not due to the spelling system itself, but due to flawed instruction.
Peter continues: “The system can cause one to be diagnosed as having ‘surface dyslexia’. Clearly though one’s ability or opportunity to rote memorize those weirdly spelled words (as pics) drives this one as does the 30 million word gap phenomenon (to some °).”
Here Peter conflates rote memorization with visual memorization. Rote memorization is learning through repetition—useful for quick recall of facts like multiplication tables, names of days of the week, months or phone numbers. Visual memorization, on the other hand, relies on mental images. No one rote memorizes “millions” of words. The human mind does this automatically: after being exposed to a word several times, it becomes orthographically fixed in memory. This is not rote memorization but the natural process of word recognition.
It is also worth noting Peter’s qualifications—“for most” and “to some”—which weaken his claims. If the issue were truly systemic, such qualifications would not be necessary. The real systemic issue is the widespread teaching of wrong letter sounds, which confuses children at the foundational stage. When educators fail to teach that letters often represent more than one sound, children are set up for unnecessary struggle.
5 comments:
Michel Luqman believes that the problem is not the extrapolated 200,000 phono-illogical errors for about 400,000 English words in the system. No! It is the teaching of "the wrong sounds of letters" that is defective! Maybe this is an issue in Malaysia, but most bona fide teachers know the sounds of letters. But the expert in the field of accounting apparently knows more. Yet, in linguistics, we talk about graphemes & phonemes. He talks about letters & sounds. There are about 200 ways of spelling (graphemes or "letters") for the 44 or so phonemes in English. The schwa phoneme has 13 different graphemes or letters, as Michel puts it. The system is the problem. Full explanation is https://x.com/PeterDMayr/status/1766996137787961659?t=qacElWWTgjVSpo_jgoPIAg&s=19
Thank you, for your comment, Peter. If you do not read links attached it is difficult to have a respectful dialogue.
You keep talking about research but where was the research when I wrote in 2010/2011 that phonological awareness deficit cannot be the cause of dyslexia? Google 'Luqman Michel Phonological awareness' and read my articles/comments.
Research reports surfaced around 2017 supporting what I said and that theory that had existed for more than 35 years was debunked.
Please read the acknowledgment pages of Dr. David Kilpatrick's two books and see my name.
https://www.dyslexiafriend.com/2020/04/to-teach-or-not-to-teach-correct.html . Peter, this is one of many posts on how letter sounds ought to be taught.
That's insignificant issue. It looks like you are not willing to address the 200k phono-illogical misspellings in the system & a sensible reform. Tutors like the golden goose & exploiting unknowledgeable parents. I think you are a selfish con artist & at best a staus quo(n) artist. Bye
I'll address them (the 200K words) after the Xmas holidays. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you.
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