Poor Little Sick Boy
| A very popular first reader for children based on Le Petit Malade by Georges Courteline.
One of several Easy Speedy Readers® available from www.nuspel.org. (Prefaced here with an excerpt from the Intro-
duction. Download it below.) |
The Commissioner of Education of one of the largest U.S. states has
stated: The number of functional illiterates in our country is alarming,
and a means of helping these individuals is urgent for their well-being as
well as for our nation. Educators, government officials, and citizens
everywhere concur. Sadly, however, what to do is stuck in the rut of an
endless, obfuscating debate over Phonics vs. Whole Language,* neither
of which has a hope in Hades of untying the Gordian knot with which our
ancient spelling has hogtied us.
*It essentially means copious reading of appealing, interesting, enthusiasm-generating texts rather than dull, boring, artificial "phonics" ones.
As has oft been noted, "Phonics" trips over its own name, suggesting p-honics.
Give its proponents credit, however, for fostering a system that is
100% sound for Spanish, Finnish and other languages with decent alphabets.
"Sounding out"—when it works—is without question the soundest
way to go, but with a spelling that has been mixed up and messed up for
centuries, not only beginners but advanced readers too can only guess
wildly at the pronunciation of every unfamiliar word. Epitome, for
example, 'logically,' confidently and erroneously pronounced epi-tome—rimed (rhymed) with home instead of appendectomy.
The problem is not with p-honics but with our unbelievably
archaic, chaotic, incredibly irregular, unpredictable non-system of spelling.
As for "Whole Language," with a respectable alphabet even little kindergartners
will be able to handle anything at all in terms of sounding it
out, and the only challenge will be the rate at which they can build
their vocabularies—most commonly simply by deriving meanings from context,
though glossaries and graphic illustrations of meanings could be part
of every first reader. With Space-Age reform of our Dark-Ages spelling,
"Learning to read by reading" will automatically become a commonplace
everyday reality for us.
Shouldn't it mortify us to the very core to know that countries like
Bolivia and Cuba, thanks to a nearly perfect Spanish alphabet, are leaving
us in the dust in terms of eliminating illiteracy? This despite the fact that
unlike us they are unable to throw billions of dollars at the problem. Are
we going to continue to throw money down a rat hole or come to our
senses and cut the alphabetical Gordian knot that's got us so hogtied
that we just keep stumbling along with no real progress?
The valuable i.t.a. (initial teaching alphabet) experiments carried out in both
the United Kingdom and the United States suggest effective techniques
for accelerating the acquisition of reading skills while simultaneously implementing
spelling reform. Unfortunately, the i.t.a focus was exclusively
on children, whereas it must always be incumbent on adults to set the
example and lead the way. Narrowly intended for teaching reading in the
first grades only, with no commitment beyond throwing out a temporary lifesaver
for children rather than a permanent lifeline not only for them
but for all of us, the i.t.a. approach acquired no momentum.
Taking a leaf from i.t.a. (which employed some unnecessarily weird
letters, whereas NuSpel is based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, improved for English*), Easy Speedy Readers® are designed to overwhelmingly demonstrate how speedy and easy learning to read can be with a spelling that surpasses even that of Spanish—winning over even the willfully blind among us prone to obstinately resist welcoming
the light and opening their eyes. Then at long last our own incomparably enlightened, progressive Space-Age generation will switch to NuSpel without a hitch as the British monk Orm's over 800 year-old dream finally comes true.
*Principles of socio- and psycho-linguistics have been employed in several instances. For example, <yu> for <u> would be totally unacceptable in the United States. The Y.S.A.? So the left stem of <u> has been converted to a small <y>:  . "Regular" <u> represents phoneme /u/ as in "lulu".
During a transition period, of course, all of us will be "biliterate" in both
NuSpel and OldSpel, just like those now able to fluently read and write
both OldSpel and English shorthand, though NuSpel—hands down, no contest at
all—is much, much easier to learn. Like them—but much more so—we will
have every right to feel very proud of ourselves, able to ecstatically
exclaim one day, "We did it! They said it couldn't be done, but we did
it! We were there. We were part of it. We caught the vision. We did
our part and more!" And the rest of the world will exuberantly and
incredulously join in: "Those crazy speakers of English actually did it!"
The basic pattern for Easy Speedy Readers® presents the text in
NuSpel first, then in OldSpel (with pronunciation guides in NuSpel) and
finally in OldSpel. Letters, words, phrases and sentences are enlivened with illustrations
which enable learners to readily grasp and retain meanings. Additionally
these afford opportunities for interaction through questions and
comments based on them. The same is true of the posters, which may
require a little explanation and discussion to help younger learners grasp
the ideas presented and to internalize a sense of being part of a great
adventure. Crucial points to consider:
1. An estimated 40 million Americans above age 15 are functional
illiterates. Our children are compelled to misspend years acquiring reading
skills that ought to be totally— utterly—simple and easy to learn. Years
that should be devoted instead to other crucial, vital, exciting, enriching
studies and pursuits. The major culprit: our spelling non-system.
2. Space-Age/Computer-Age technology greatly simplifies and facilitates
the conversion of texts of all kinds to NuSpel as well as its promotion
and acceptance.
3. Employing his i.t.a. materials for non-speakers of English, Dr. J. Donald Bowen of the Foreign Service Institute smashed through the appalling spelling roadblock in the way of learning to read and speak our language with remarkable success. Strenuous, innovative efforts to help foreigners... and no comparable exertion on behalf of our own struggling, precious children!
4. Caring, concerned, effective interaction between learners, teachers
and parents is an essential key to success. Appropriate materials should
emphasize this. Beginning readers that go all out to do it:
The Training Wheels Alphabet Book and the Easy Speedy Readers.
Basic 21st Century Literacy Package
The Training Wheels Alphabet Book: A scientific approach to phonics.
Every letter always represents the same sound, getting learners
off to a fast, confidence-building start. For example /a/ is always as in at, never all, ate, along, etc. An ancient mnemonic device
(aid to memory) helps beginners to immediately memorize letter
shapes. As just one example, the figurative drawing of a snake looks
like S and a snake's hiss brings to mind the letter's sound: ssssss!
The Look, Mom, No Hands! Alphabet Book: A sequel to The Training
Wheels Alphabet Book. An initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), updating
the successful approach of Sir James Pittman (implemented in
both Great Britain and the U.S.) guarantees ease of mastery and the
thrill of success from word one.
Poor Little Sick Boy: Easy and speedy—exactly as claimed—but also
challenging and fun. Please respect the copyrights. Pages from these
and other Easy Speedy Readers® may be printed out for use as
work sheets. Additional readers in this series are in preparation.
Ruedas Estabilizadoras is a TESL (Teaching English as a second language)
version of The Training Wheels Alphabet Book with an English-Spanish glossary. Pages may also be reproduced for non-commercial use.
 
Two more Easy Speedy Readers
5. Children are fascinated by language and are as open to stimulating
novelty as the most imaginative and creative of adults.
6. To adults some of the new NuSpel letters may seem odd, but to the
young all the letters are equally fresh and new.
Learning Russian (as just one example) requires mastering a whole new
alphabet. By contrast, learning a few additional NuSpel letters is a snap.
7. With OldSpel there is no sure way to determine by
"phonics" how an English word is pronounced. Shoes and toes, lose and
hose, not to mention calliope, psoriasis, etc., etc. are just a few among innumerable proofs of this.
8. A teacher or tutor cannot always be standing by to confirm, encourage
and help, nor is it feasible to expect children to apply complex
rules and remember unpredictable exceptions that baffle, confuse and deter
adults.
9. With NuSpel it is not only possible but very simple and easy to represent
the whole gamut of English sounds and their combinations—not
possible while some of them remain orphans without letters of their
own... as spelled in a zure, lu ge, Zsa Zsa, rou ge, plea sure, as one example. Another: velar nasal /  /, represented by [ng]. Some native speakers of English actually say "sing-ging," pronouncing all syllable-final [g]s! Representing foreign words such as Vietnamese Ngo looks picturesque but is of little help in terms of pronunciation. "Eng" doesn't occur word-initially in English, but with the proper symbol in common use, this could be more readily attempted—and with acceptable success.
10. Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have recently
joined together to reform the spelling of German, a process initially expected to
be irreversible by 2002. Even without reform, their system is far, far
superior to our non-system, but they want to do every single thing in their
power—right down to perfecting the last jot and tittle—to facilitate
efficient, rapid, painless acquisition of reading and writing skills for their
precious little ones. Are we so much less caring, concerned and capable
that we can't do the same?
11. With OldSpel, our written language has limited resources for coining new proper names, brand names, and even scientific terminology. For samples of NuSpel's almost unlimited possibilities, see The Game of the Name pp. 5-6.
12. With a perfected spelling, speech recognition will receive a huge boost and keyboarding will become of minor importance. See NuSpel Dictionary and NuSpel Homographs and Homophones.
13. In this computer-age, printing thousands of easy speedy readers like Poor Little Sick Boy is no problem at all. Have a look at one more NuSpel poster from among others available on the world-wide web at nuspel.org
For a rebuttal of opponents' arguments against English spelling reform, click here. |
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