Structured Word Inquiry

Structured Word Inquiry

Guiding Principles of Structured Word Inquiry

(“scientific word investigation”)

1. The primary function of English spelling is to represent meaning.

2. The conventions by which English spelling represents meaning are so well-ordered and reliable that spelling can be investigated and understood through scientific inquiry.

Scientific inquiry is necessary to safely guide spelling instruction and understanding.

1. Scientific inquiry is the only means by which a learning community can safely accept or reject hypotheses about how spelling works.

Inquiry learning is rudderless (and unscientific) without a reliable means of falsifyinghypotheses that don’t stand up to the evidence. A community committed to the use of scientific inquiry to deepen its understanding of orthography has an ever-evolving understanding. It strives to apply the same critical analysis to its own assumptions, hypotheses and working conclusions about orthography as it does to to those of any other reference. Every conclusion is accepted as temporary, pending further evidence.

There are many features necessary for instruction to warrant the title “structured word inquiry” or “scientific word investigation.” The purpose of the guiding principles above is that they offer educators a means of recognizing when they are moving away from SWI and thus a cue to reconsider that practice.

For example...

1. If you find yourself using instruction that suggests that the primary purpose of spelling is to represent the sounds of words, you are violating the first principle.

2. If you find yourself using instruction that suggests that some words are “exceptions” or irregular, you are violating the second principle.

Here are some of the linguistic tools and practices that must be present for instruction to meet the criteria of SWI include:

1. Morphological analysis and synthesis with word sums. The word sum is a necessary tool to allow for falsification of hypotheses of orthographic morphological structure.

2. Analysis of morphological families and etymological families. Use of the “structure and meaning test” to determine whether two words are etymological relatives (share a root) and morphological relatives (share a base element). The word matrix permits the analysis of the interrelations morphological elements of a morphological family.