Strategies of a Spelling Bee Champion
By: Kevin Linehan
OnTrac Hypnosis & Wellness Center
Atkinson, NH
In the classroom, even among those that excel, there are many that have difficulty spelling. Spelling is a skill that simply does not come naturally to everyone. It also does not help that the most common hint offered to a child learning to spell is to “sound it out”. Many of us still use this ineffective strategy. The tool used in which words are spelled the way they sound is called phonics. Do you think it is as strange as I do that the word phonics sounded out phonetically is “puh-hon-iks” and spelled phonetically is “fonix”? Phonics has a number of important features that are useful for spelling, such as guessing on a word that one has never seen, phonics is not, however, the strategy used by the very best spellers. An effective spelling strategy that can be learned in a matter of minutes and used successfully throughout your life is described below.
Robert Dilts, one of the early pioneers of Neuro-linguistic Programming often used spelling in order to demonstrate a NLP technique called modeling. He used spelling because it was simple to demonstrate and easily testable. The concept of modeling in NLP suggests that if anyone who “models” or uses the same strategy as someone that is effective in performing a task will then be able to perform the task more effectively themselves. People that are very good at a particular task often perform the task subconsciously making it difficult to ask them what they do that is effective. Success however leaves clues. Excellent spellers that are asked to explain how they know a word is spelled correctly will invariably respond with “I just feel that it looks right.” The stronger the “feeling” the more sure they are that the word is spelled correctly. So how do we use this clue to elicit the effective spelling strategy in order to teach it to others?
Looking at the clue of “I just feel that it looks right” we see that the visual and kinesthetic representational systems are accessed in an effective speller. Watch carefully the eyes of a good speller as they are asked to spell a word. First their eyes will go up and to the left. NLP says that when this occurs the person is accessing the part of their brain where visual memories are stored. This indicates that a picture of the word has become available to the speller. Then their eyes go downward. NLP says that this happens when the part of the brain responsible for kinesthetic feelings is accessed. It is at this point where the speller knows that they now have the correct spelling of the word. Isn’t it interesting that the auditory (spell it out) system is not in the strategy used by effective spellers? Poor spellers on the other hand use a variety of strategies. In some cases they will even shift strategies in the middle of spelling a word. This leads to inconsistencies. Perhaps that is why your child knew their word list during your review with them but then performed poorly on the spelling test the very next day.
So how can we use this information in order to improve the performance of a poor speller? The answer is going to seem too easy but give it a try anyway it works! The first step is to look at the correct spelling of the word and then look up and to the left and visualize it. This places the correct spelling into memory. There are techniques that can be used if you have difficulty with this step. An easy one is to picture the word in your favorite color. Another would be to break the word into short sequences of letters strung together in order to remember the entire word. We said above that an important piece of the strategy is to have a strong feeling that the word is correct before attempting to spell it. In order to associate confidence with the correct spelling all that is needed is to introduce a confident state. Thinking about anything that you have confidence doing will shift your state to one of confidence. So while picturing the correct spelling feel the confidence you get from the activity in which you are really good and that feeling will automatically anchor itself to the correct spelling. Now when asked to spell a word you simply shift your eyes up and to the left to “see” it, then down to get the sense of confidence to know it is the correct spelling. At this point you may say big deal so now I know how to spell that word. Keep in mind however you now know a process that can be used to learn how to spell any word. Think of the quotation “if you give someone a fish you have fed him for a day – if you teach him how to fish, you have fed him for the rest of his life.” That message is appropriate in this case as well. As with any learned process practice is necessary for it to be most effective.
The gist of this article has been about becoming a more effective speller. The underlying NLP principle involved, in this case modeling, can be used to become more effective anywhere in life you wish to apply it. Financially successful individuals leave clues as to how they see, hear, feel, smell and taste financial success. A self-made millionaire that goes bankrupt has the strategies needed with which to become rich again, just as a lottery winner that lacks the right strategies for financial success will often find themselves broke in a few short years. Those in successful relationships have effective strategies for dealing with other people. Those that excel in sports have effective strategies as well. Once the strategy that is most effective for doing anything is known it can be broken down and learned. In most cases the resources that are needed are already available to the individual wishing to improve in a certain area, all that remains to be done is to use those available resources to mimic the strategies used by those that are already successful.
Is there an area of your life in which you want to become more successful?
