s-t-r-u-g-g-l-a-t-i-o-n

It was spelling time for the grade 5s today. Fortunately, Teacher Thaba is not nearly as bad a speller as she is a grammarian. [I had to get Phet to help me review the concept of direct and indirect objects last night with the handy help of example sentences from one of Ji's picture books.] And she is exponentially a better grammarian than a mathematician. [Today one of my kids asked me for help with the following math problem from his homework: "Joe has 30 pens and pencils. If he gives away one pen, he will get two pencils. How many pens does Joe have to give away to get 48 pencils?" I started out by telling the student that he probably would find it easier without my help, but I gave it my best shot. I started out and said "Hm, what's 48-30? 18? Ok, well then what's half of 18? 9? Ok, so did Joe give away 9 pencils? Let's check. Uh, ok, 30-9=21. And then 21+18=39." Crap. I randomly tried another number, but that didn't work either, so I went to find the math teacher. While I was gone, the student was able to figure out the correct answer based on my example of the wrong way to approach the problem. And although he showed me the answer, I still can't remember what it is or how to figure out this problem properly. Gack. It's lucky for Ji that he has a math-astute father cause otherwise he'd be up equation creek without a paddle.]

But back to spelling. As I said, I'm not a bad speller. If I make a spelling mistake, it's usually because I've typed something out too quickly, and if I re-read my work I'll catch the mistake quickly. So I figger I'll be adept at teaching this whole spelling thing. But DAMN does English have to be such a difficult language? In other languages, if you want to turn a verb into an abstract noun - like, say, know -> knowledge - you simply add a noun-marker word in front of the verb. For example, in Lao, the word for 'know' is 'hou'. The word for 'knowledge' is 'kwahm hou'. But in English? Ai ai ai. I stupidly decided to put these words on the spelling list:

suggest / suggestion
pronounce / pronunciation
describe / description
exclaim / exclamation

I put these words on the list because they are all key vocab words for this week. But then, when I sat down to figure out the rules for making 'tion' words, it took me an hour to ponder out a very limited number of observations...

Ok, if the word ends with -ade or -ate, drop the -e and add -ion. Like castigate -> castigation. And some words you can just add -ion. Like words that end in -t. Say, suggest -> suggestion. But then what about request? You can't say requestion, you have to say requisition. Why? And why must repeat become repetition and not repeatition? It seems to have something to do with where the emphasis on the word is placed. The emphasis must be on the syllable just before the -tion. You have to say re-pe-TI-tion, not re-PEAT-i-tion. Ex-cla-MA-tion, not ex-CLAIM-a-tion. Pro-nun-ci-A-tion, not pro-NOUNCE-i-a-tion. De-SCRIP-tion, not de-scrib-A-tion. But how does this translate to a spelling rule that I can easily teach my students?

And while we're at it, how come some words get -ition instead of -ation? Like, why isn't it a supposation instead of a supposition? Why not defination instead of definition? And how do you teach words that are abstract nouns that don't have a corresponding verb - like, I've never heard of someone who aviates planes, but there certainly is an aviation industry. Finally, how come some verbs are the exact same as their corresponding abstract nouns: "Thaba struggles with spelling. She is involved in a struggle." Why not "Thaba struggles with spelling. She is involved in a strugglation"?

In the end, I decided to focus on the sounds of the words. I gave the kids a few examples, and then we went around in a circle with them giving me the spoken versions of the -tion words. They got the hang of it pretty quick. Maybe I ought to focus on pronunciation instead of spellation. [Bangkok-12-September-2005]