: Spelling - how important is it? — Hi Pleased to see this has moved over from the ITALL forum. My thoughts are currently as follows... Very often correct spelling is used as a filtering out tool by employers and other reps of officialdom both at entry level and for promotion and so on. But are they/we shooting themselves/ourselves in the foot and missing out on a whole pile of potential that is out there? I agree that…

Johnc: Spelling - how important is it? — Hi This issue has already been raised in the Ital category but I think it is pretty important to all of us involved with literacy. I'll quote the mail that started the idea and a reply from Stevieboy and we can go on from there. 'Spelling doesn't matter and too many people are worried about. It decreases in importance as more people realise that computers make spelling easier. Language is…

Stevieboy: Welcome to the ABE forum — I agree with guest to a certain degree, in a world of txt spk you don't find yourself rotfl when someone makes a spelling mistakd, you just assume they've not used spell chequer. However as the poem we saw the other week highlights, spell check is not infallible. We should not be getting too hung up over it, especially in the early days with a learner, the whole point of "correct" spelling and…

: Welcome to the ABE forum — Spelling doesn't matter and too many people are worried about. It decreases in importance as more people realise that computers make spelling easier. Language is about 'meaning' not rules. The rules just create fear of failure

Johnc: Welcome to the ABE forum — I wouldn't worry too much about lack of activity. The forum has only been available since a couple of weeks ago - and I haven't gotten round to mailing all ABE tutors about it's existence. I will do that today using the list that MarkR gave me. This list doesn't include all trained tutors (most of the recant batches) so if you have any more email addresses of tutors please email them to…

: Welcome to the ABE forum — I think that the lack of convention ( although my understanding generally is that they are pretty informal) is a double edged sword. It's harder to find a model to use but we are (for once) free to use our own voice in our own style. However, that initself can be a scary thing for people. Sometimes a convention to fit into can be easier. I guess like lot of situations feeling you are not being…