200,000 Defects or 26 Letters? A Twitter Debate on Literacy Reform
Setting the Stage
On March 11, 2024, a Twitter thread reignited a familiar argument:
“Kids are not dumb; the spelling system is. Research shows it delays learning to read by 2.5 years (Seymour, 2003).”
The claim: English orthography is riddled with “200,000 phono‑illogical errors” and only spelling reform can fix it.
This is a continuation of my zoom meeting with my learned friend from the US. You may read the first part here.
He said that if we teach whole words (referring to me teaching my students the Dolch words) by rote memory then the kids will have to memorise thousands of words. I was shocked that this learned man would say such an idiotic thing. I am beginning to wonder if he too is paid by the people with a vested interest to say such a stupid thing.
