Jones shows that the writing vocabulary of children is comparatively small. This narrows our spelling problem within correspondingly small limits.
4. Of the 4,532 different words the number used by at least 2% of the pupils in the respective grades was as follows:
| Grade 2 | 1,927 |
| Grade 3, new words added | 469 |
| Grade 4, new words added | 442 |
| Grade 5, new words added | 432 |
| Grade 6, new words added | 425 |
| Grade 7, new words added | 419 |
| Grade 8, new words added | 418 |
| 4,532 |
When Should Spelling Be Taught
The scientific teaching of spelling requires that words shall be taught in the grade in which they are first used. When the child first enters school his speaking vocabulary is comparatively large. His reading vocabulary varies from nothing to one fairly large, depending, in part, on the home from which the child comes. His writing vocabulary is very limited, even under the best of conditions. This latter increases very rapidly during the first three years. The teaching of nearly 2,000 words in the second grade becomes, of course, a gigantic, even an impossible, task. The Aldine Speller obviates this in two ways:
(a) By postponing the teaching of the words least likely to be used in the second grade until a later grade.
(b) Many of the words which should be taught in the early grades have basic parts which have been called phonograms. By use of these phonogram groups, or “families,” the number of words taught in the first and second grades can be very greatly increased, and the best possible foundation given for the development of a spelling sense. The Aldine Speller makes full use of this principle, and a very complete list of phonic “families” will be found at the close of the work of the second year. (See page 65, Part I.) Attention is also called to suggestions for teaching such words on page [28] of this manual.
Other Investigations
In 1911 Mr. R. C. Eldridge published the results of a study of 250 different newspaper articles occurring in four issues of a Buffalo Sunday paper. Of the 43,098 words tabulated there were only 6,002 different words. This again shows that the writing vocabulary even of adults is comparatively small.
Cook and O’Shea studied the correspondence of thirteen adults, tabulating 200,000 words, and found only 5,200 different words.