LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Learning to Spell. .
SIR,-1 have been considering how I learnt to spell and how I spell now. I believe that my findings will be corroborated by other readers of your paper. I started by learning the sounds of letters and by putting them together to spell very simple words such as C-A-T. That stage was, however, very soon left behind; and from an early age until now I have been learning to spell and actually spelling by visualising the word as a whole. That is why, when I started to learn Latin, I, like my present-day pupils, had to unlearn the habit of seeing a word as a whole and accustom myself-to looking at its parts (stem and ending). If to visualise the word as a whole is the normal way of spelling, as I think it is, there is no point in reform of English spelling unless it be to aid the -foreigner to comprehend English pronunciation. lf, however, that is the purpose, it will be necessary vastly to increase our alphabet to find sufficient symbols for the multiplicity of sounds.—Yours faithfully, H. G. MULLENS.
Lord Williams's School, Thame, Oxon.
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