Spelling time

1. I love watching children spell some rather difficult words on The Great Australian Spelling Bee. Apparently there are words they haven’t come across before and it’s amazing to see them spell the words correctly. I suppose the regularity of English spelling enable them to predict likely spelling patterns.

2. Spelling may not be taught directly in language classes, but in primary schools and even in kindergarten there are teachers who still give spelling quizzes to their pupils. That brings me to my grandchildren, Umar and Nuraina. They have spelling quizzes twice a week both for Malay and English on Monday and Friday respectively. For each quiz five words are given beforehand for them to learn.

3. Umar and Nuraina were quite good in spelling. My daughter cared about their intellectual development, so she made time to guide them in their learning. She shared her fun experience with me via WhatsApp messages.

4. Their teachers started giving them spelling quizzes on 7 February. Umar started well getting full marks for his first quiz. His teacher stuck five red star stickers on the page of his spelling book. His sister got full marks too and her teacher stuck a praise sticker.

QUIZ 1*

5. Nuraina got another praise sticker for her second quiz. Unfortunately, his brother got only four stars. He told his mother somewhat carelessly that only three people made mistakes including him. His Chinese friend, Cotton, spelled ‘sekolah’ as ‘selahki,’ Afif, a Malay friend, spelled ‘arnab’ as ‘arnad’ and Umar spelled ‘lelaki’ as ‘lekaki.’

QUIZ 2

6. Umar got one star less for his third quiz yet again. His mother was rather disappointed and I told her it was not the end of the world. Umar spelled ‘draw’ as ‘braw,’ but he spelled all the other four words correctly. Nuraina spelled all words of different spelling patterns - flag, gift, gate, hand, horn - correctly and earned another praise sticker.

QUIZ 3

7. I told my daughter to help them prepare for their next quiz on the following Monday. She texted me that Umar was quite ready for his coming quiz, but anything could happen in the actual situation. For instance, Umar tended to mix d up with b. Anyhow, their mother took heart from the siblings’ results on Monday. Both got all their spellings correct. ‘Praise be to God,’ she texted, ‘they did so well.’

QUIZ 4

8. The following Thursday my daughter did revision with the siblings for Friday quizzes. Umar seemed able to spell all the English words fluently including ‘children,’ but when asked to write them down ‘children’ was written with the ‘r’ missing. Thus I felt a bit doubtful if he could make it.

9. It was Friday. I was curious when there was no message from my daughter about the children’s spelling quizzes, but my wife had troubling news from her that they didn’t fare as well. So I texted her that there seemed to be no report for that day. And seconds later two unexpected photos appeared on my mobile. It was a pleasant surprise. Nuraina did very well. Umar was splendid. Their mother wrote: ‘I am a proud mummy.’ I responded: ‘You pulled mum’s leg. She’ll pull your ear tomorrow.’

QUIZ 5

10. Around noon the following Monday my daughter texted me that Umar had made the same blunder again – mixing b up with d. He spelled ‘datuk’ as ‘batuk’ thus earning one star less. Nuraina did well earning another praise sticker. I suggested giving Umar simple drills on the use of b and d, for example, asking him to spell and write down pairs of words beginning with the two letters such as baku/daku, basi/dasi, bata/data, batu/datu, beli/deli, bini/dini, buka/duka, buku/duku and bulu/dulu.

QUIZ 6

11. There were no text messages regarding spelling quizzes on Friday 28 February, but I learned later that both Umar and Nuraina scored full marks on that day.

QUIZ 7

12. Nuraina seemed to fare better than his brother in spelling quizzes from the beginning. She did quite well scoring full marks all along. Then the unexpected happened. My daughter was waiting at the entrance downstairs to fetch her and Umar. After a while she caught sight of them coming down the stairs. Halfway down Nuraina burst out crying piteously telling her mother that she’d made one mistake in her quiz. She’d spelled ‘sentuh’ with the ‘n’ and ‘h’ missing apparently because she was unfamiliar with those closed syllables.
13. Her mother comforted her with encouraging words. She began wondering what went wrong despite making time to help her daughter do revision. She was worried because Nuraina had to learn words with closed syllables quite unfamiliar to her. So she’d helped the little girl revise a number of times, but Nuraina was inconsistent. Her mother was partly blaming herself thinking that she might be pushing the girl a bit too hard. I suspected her technique was ineffective. I thought to myself, it’s not easy to become instant teacher.

QUIZ 8

14. Umar had been given five words, namely ‘big,’ ‘small,’ ‘robots,’ ‘together’ and ‘crocodile,’ for subsequent Friday quiz. I thought he would be able to spell the first three words easily, but I wasn’t sure about the other two. My daughter agreed with me and recounted what Umar had told her in his usual careless way: “Mama, ‘robots,’ ‘big,’ ‘small’ OK; ‘together,’ ‘crocodile’ sure not OK la.”

15. I tried to help and texted her to tell Umar to spell ‘father,’ ‘mother’ and ‘brother’ stressing on the syllable ‘ther’ and ask him to spell ‘toge’ then just add ‘ther.’ She OK’d it and admitted it was a good formula. Thus I thought Umar had just to memorise ‘crocodile.’

16. Later I texted her: ‘… if you care to play with him, break up the word into three syllables cro/co/dile. Write each syllable on a piece of paper. Jumble up and ask him to rearrange. Do this several times. Then hide one syllable and ask him to arrange the two syllables. Where must the missing syllable be?’

17. My daughter thanked me for the tips. I reminded her not to forget Nuraina. She was certain Nuraina would make it because she’d been given quite simple words: ‘ring,’ ‘star,’ ‘vet,’ ‘vest’ and ‘tea.’ I supposed my daughter carried out the tips with Umar, but later when he was told to write down ‘crocodile,’ it became ‘crocobile.’ I responded I was just about to remind her about the letter ‘d’ suspecting he might mix it up with ‘b.’ Anyhow Umar and Nuraina did very well on Friday and I congratulated them.

QUIZ 9

18. I missed the following Monday morning text from my daughter which ran: Pray for #umaraina ejaan paktok maktok.. Then around noon she sent me a recording of pages from Umar’s and Nuraina’s spelling books showing the results for that day. Both got all their spellings correct. I was amused to hear the siblings singing “Aya Che Siti” in the background. I responded: Very good Umar and Aina. Congratulations!

QUIZ 10

19. The following Friday my morning text ran: ‘Good morning. Hope Umar and Aina do well for spelling today. Good luck.’ Later during the early afternoon my daughter texted me to tell that both did well in their spelling and I congratulated them. Later she sent me audio of Umar and Nuraina declaring they got five stars for spelling and afterwards photos of the relevant pages.

QUIZ 11

20. Those were the last quizzes before school was indefinitely closed by reason of the Movement Control Order (MCO) or lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19 disease affecting the population at large. And now after a lapse of more than three months since the MCO came into effect, school will reopen on 1st July which means that Umar and Nuraina will be able to resume classroom learning to acquire basic skills in writing, reading and counting.

21. Regarding their spelling quizzes I’m glad that they never got lower than four marks out of five. Umar got four marks three times, twice due to mixing b up with d. The other mistake might be due to carelessness. Nuraina made only one mistake in the entire spelling quizzes apparently on account of not being familiar with certain closed syllables.

22. I care about how they fare in whatever they do because motivation is an important psychological factor in learning. They’d be motivated if they fare well in what they do in classrooms. The main aim is to build their confidence. I conclude with a quote from a Greek writer: “In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.”

*Pages from Umar’s (left) and Nuraina’s spelling books.