From Alrewas to Tavrobel; from the most able to him that can but spell


From Alrewas to Tavrobel; from the most able to him that can but spell: I've been away in the Midlands, primarily to attend my aunt Naomi's funeral - which went well. It took place at Stafford Crematorium, which turns out to be just three miles from Great Haywood (better known to Tolkien aficionados as Tavrobel), where I was obliged to ask directions, for it is a puzzling piece of country in which meandering roads wind aimlessly over dead straight waterways (via awfully narrow bridges), thus reversing the proper order of nature.

The night before the funeral I stayed with friends at nearby Alrewas. There, I was shown this book, from which my friend had learned to read - though not spell - in the 1960s.

I posted before on the abortive Shavian attempt at English spelling reform. The Initial Teaching Alphabet was a less ambitious scheme, which flourished in Britain (and elsewhere) for about 10 years from the mid-'60s, and was intended to get children reading before they made the move to standard English texts and spelling; but it looks much the same, inasmuch as it's a largely phonemic script. (It's also all in lower case.) I'd heard of it before, but never actually seen it being used to bring great literature to life.

It's hard to believe anyone thought this would be a good idea. Did any of my LJ friends learn to read this way? How was it for you?

I also passed very near to Abbots Bromley. This September I must make an effort finally to see the Horn Dance.
Tags: books, language, real life

2012-06-26 11:25 pm (UTC) (Link)

I didn't learn on ITA (or should that be "ita"? The literacy method of e e cummings?) but I had near contemporaries who did. Many never did learn to spell well, and unlearning the special characters was intensely confusing for little ones. It didn't last long and was never universal, thank heavens, but it did have a lasting baneful effect.

My father was once the policeman in charge of supervising the Horn Dance, but it was on a school day, so I never went.

Mid-Staffordshire is not at all well-known - it's just the bit that isn't the Potteries or the Black Country to most folks. I was brought up there (in ten different houses and eight schools) so I have some affection for it. The roads mostly follow old field boundaries, I think. I'm glad the funeral went well. Both of my maternal grandparents were seen off there - despite being extremely Welsh they lived out their last five or six decades in Stafford.

steepholm

2012-06-27 07:27 am (UTC) (Link)

Was being the policeman in charge of the horn dance an onerous job, I wonder? (I know that several pubs appear on the itinerary.)

My Alrewas friend grew up not far away in Aldridge, so clearly some Staffs schools at least were teaching using ITA. It's not an area I know well, although I did have several childhood holidays with relatives in the Black Country (Wolverhampton to be precise). I think you're right about the field boundaries: it reminded me a bit of parts of north Somerset in that respect.

nineveh_uk

2012-06-27 07:27 am (UTC) (Link)

I didn't learn to read by ITA, but a middle school friend who had moved from another area had done so (a last bastion in the early 80s). Aged 11, and otherwise a good reader/writer, she had difficulties with spelling that were put down to it.

/via friendsfriends

steepholm

2012-06-27 08:55 am (UTC) (Link)

It's hard to know how far it was to blame for bad spelling, and how far (as in

fjm's case below) it was a scapegoat that disguised other problems such as dyslexia. I don't know whether any large-scale research has been done on spelling outcomes for larger populations, although one would like to think that there was a some reason other than fashion for the system's eventual abandonment.

joyeuce

2012-06-28 04:38 pm (UTC) (Link)

Some of my Beatrix Potter books listed other-language editions on the back cover, and there it was "i.t.a.". I never saw any books printed in it though.

calimac

2012-06-26 11:57 pm (UTC) (Link)

I have my own theory as to what in Great Haywood inspired the House of a Hundred Chimneys in Tavrobel, but it hasn't seen publication yet.

steepholm

2012-06-27 08:55 am (UTC) (Link)

Now I'm intrigued...

"There's a bloke here behind taking down every blessed word you're saying."

nineweaving

2012-06-27 02:07 am (UTC) (Link)

Oh, I was absolutely fascinated by ITA when I was a kid--Henry Higgins stuff! Never ran across it in the wild though: only in books on linguistics.

One of these years, I would love to see the Horn Dance in the wild. I love the intensely eerie version done at Revels, but that's faux-mythic not folkloric.

Nine

Re: "There's a bloke here behind taking down every blessed word you're saying."

steepholm

2012-06-27 08:55 am (UTC) (Link)

If I do go, I shall take pictures!

Re: "There's a bloke here behind taking down every blessed word you're saying."

nineweaving

2012-06-28 06:30 am (UTC) (Link)

Ooh. I hope you will.

Nine

communicator

2012-06-27 05:59 am (UTC) (Link)

Yes I was taught using ITA. My mum was told off because when I got to school she had (oops) already taught me to read using the proper alphabet - very much frowned on - and I was sternly told to unlearn how to read. Basically what I did was learn this stupid system so i could recite books to the teacher, and carry on reading proper books at home.

ETA - sorry when I say 'sternly told' that is just a joke, unfair to my teachers, I was gently encouraged to stick to the rational and sensible ITA system as I was not 'ready' for the real alphabet.

I often wonder whether my lifelong poor spelling is linked to ITA but no, I think I am just careless and hasty in all things.

Edited at 2012-06-27 06:02 am (UTC)

steepholm

2012-06-27 09:24 am (UTC) (Link)

I often wonder whether my lifelong poor spelling is linked to ITA but no, I think I am just careless and hasty in all things.

Anecdotal evidence is thick on the ground, but it's hard to be sure. I will ask my education colleagues whether there's research out there on the long-term effectiveness (or not) of the method.

Edited at 2012-06-27 10:06 am (UTC)

heleninwales

2012-06-28 12:39 pm (UTC) (Link)

Both my husband and I are far too old for ita, but when G did teacher training in 1973, it was still being taught as a teaching method. It was reading a book called The Thing on the Line (a book intended for older children who were "reluctant readers") that made us realise that out of standardised spelling, phonetic spelling and regional accents you can only ever have two out of three. The "ng" should actually be a combined letter that I can't do online. It sounds like the "ng" in sing -- unless you're from Manchester or Birmingham, when you clearly pronounce the "g" and thus the whole system falls apart because there is no "g" in "think", but in ita it is spelled "thingk".

I don't know whether there has since been any research on long-lasting influences in spelling skills extending into adulthood, but even by the early 70s it had been found that though kids did learn to read faster initially, after a couple of years there was no detectable difference between those taught using ita and those taught using conventional spelling and alphabet. Thus when you took into account having to have special books printed and the confusion it caused parents, there was no real advantage and the scheme quietly died.

heleninwales

2012-06-28 12:45 pm (UTC) (Link)

PS In the research I referred to above, whilst ita showed initial advantages that disappeared when the children made the switch to ordinary spelling and alphabet, one interesting finding was that all the children in the trial were much better readers than those in the general school population who were not involved in the research.

Or in other words, the most important factor in learning to read was a keen and committed teacher who was determined to prove their method was best! I suspect that this explains why these phonics schemes appear to do so well. They're not actually better, it's just that the advocates of the system are working hard to prove that they're better.

steepholm

2012-06-28 12:49 pm (UTC) (Link)

I can absolutely believe that! I'm sure there's a word for this kind of effect - a first cousin of publication bias, I suppose.

steepholm

2012-06-28 12:57 pm (UTC) (Link)

That 'ng' sound appears in my friend's book, though not on this particular page.

And yes, you're right that these schemes include assumptions about correct (or at least standard) pronunciation, that certainly aren't going to apply across the board. An interesting one here (though you may need to look at the photo full-size to see it) is that there is a little squiggle on the 'r' of 'mother', to indicate a retroflex 'r'. This intrigued me, because of course that 'r' isn't pronounced at all in RP (although it is in West Country and some other regional British accents), and I was slightly surprised that they included it. Then I remembered that the ITA was, although a British invention, marketed to other Anglophone countries, notably the USA, where of course that 'r' is standard.

cmcmck

2012-06-27 07:16 am (UTC) (Link)

Staffordshire is one of my family's home counties- my grandad Snape (very Staffordshire name) was from they parts.

For myself, it was good ol' Janet 'n' John although I was reading by about three anyway.

I've seen the horn dance a couple of times- it is truly strange and fascinating.

Edited at 2012-06-27 07:48 am (UTC)

steepholm

2012-06-27 09:08 am (UTC) (Link)

I was a very average child in terms of learning to read - neither early nor late - though for me it was Tip and Mitten rather than Janet and John. I was always a good speller, for what it's worth, though I can't say why.

mevennen

2012-06-27 07:35 am (UTC) (Link)

I learned via ITA and my spelling is excellent. I also speed-read.

steepholm

2012-06-27 09:03 am (UTC) (Link)

Of course, you might have done as well (or even better) under a different system, just as some people who've blamed ITA for poor spelling might have struggled with more conventional teaching too. I don't know if there's any research on outcomes (short and long-term) that allow for a proper comparison to be made, but I'd be interested to see it.

veronica_milvus

2012-06-27 07:42 am (UTC) (Link)

Great Heywood and Tolkien? Please explain! I was brought up not far from there.

My husband learned to read with the ITA system and blames it for his complete inability to spell.

steepholm

2012-06-27 09:22 am (UTC) (Link)

Tavrobel is a place in Tol Eressëa, an elvish land which in Tolkien's early writings was associated/identified with Britain. As for the Great Haywood connection,

calimac is the expert here, but it comes from Tolkien's early married life, when he and Edith lived there: more details here.

Edited at 2012-06-27 10:08 am (UTC)

fjm

2012-06-27 08:29 am (UTC) (Link)

I learned ita, and then switched very fast, but I also learned hebrew at the same time, so in my school it would have inevitably been presented as just one of three alphabets.

I had trouble spelling, which was put down to ita. I learned to spell in the end by the old fashioned method of clapping a rythym (my grandma taught me). The irony was that when I was 21 they figured out I was dyslexic. Ita had helped disguise it because it was a suitable scapegoat (mind you, the other thing that helped disguise it was the speed with which I picked up word recognition/word capture, including realising some letters were silent: unfortunately I often picked the wrong letters: Dennis the Menace and G(n)asher anyone?)

steepholm

2012-06-27 09:06 am (UTC) (Link)

Very interesting. I'd actually been wondering whether ITA (whatever its value as a way of learning to read English) might have been useful in habituating young children to different scripts, and hence indirectly helped with their learning of other languages.

That problem of disguising dyslexia must have been a fairly widespread one, I think.

paratti

2012-06-27 11:45 am (UTC) (Link)

My brother did ITA.
I learnt to read at three and a half at home and learned proper English.
I scored a lot better than he did.
My grandmother's family were from Alrewas.

steepholm

2012-06-27 07:32 pm (UTC) (Link)

Why did you learn using different methods? Were you too early or too late for the joys of ITA?

paratti

2012-06-27 08:08 pm (UTC) (Link)

I was 18 months older and so started infant school with traditional English teaching in Buckinghamshire while my brother started school in Dorset and had ITA inflicted on him.
As I could already read my Dorset teacher just did the sensible thing and let me read the Ladybird books two or three years older than my chronological age.
I still have spelling problems but ITA wasn't the cause. I just went through school in the top English stream as the rest of my English was great and I got embarassed every time there was a spelling test.

sovay

2012-06-27 07:13 pm (UTC) (Link)

I'd heard of it before, but never actually seen it being used to bring great literature to life.

I think it's sort of fascinating that a largely phonemic script still uses apostrophes to indicate the possessive.

steepholm

2012-06-27 07:29 pm (UTC) (Link)

"Children, think of it not as an apostrophe, but as a pictogram of a grasping hand, saying 'Mine!'"

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steepholm

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"There's a bloke here behind taking down every blessed word you're saying."

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