Ultimate Spelling For Education

Ultimate Spelling EDU is the world's most advanced spelling learning system for schools. With Ultimate Spelling, you have your spelling teaching requirements completely under control.

Based on proven science, Ultimate Spelling EDU contains all the features of Ultimate Spelling plus:

It's absolutely essential your students graduate with their spelling educational requirements met. With Ultimate Spelling EDU these spelling requirements are more than met. Students also improve academic performance, are prepared for standardized tests, and improve their confidence.

The next step is to see Ultimate Spelling for yourself. Simply fill out the form and we'll send you a free no obligation trial of the full version of Ultimate Spelling EDU.

The Science

Ultimate Spelling is scientifically designed, and utilizes principles based on decades of research in learning, retention, and psychology. Here is a summary of the theory and research behind Ultimate Spelling's effectiveness.

Craik, F., and Tulving, E. "Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 104(3) (1975): 268-294. Print and PDF. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.104.3.268

In this seminal study performed at the University of Toronto, Canada, the authors performed a series of tests in which they gave the study participants a sequence of words to learn, with information related to each word as it appeared in order. They discovered that when the information provided stimulated the participant's brain to process the word on a more involved level (referred to as "deep encoding" or "degree of elaboration" in the study), that word was more effectively learned and remembered. With Ultimate Spelling, the user is given a wide range of additional information about each spelling word, including the word's definition - one of the key factors in enhanced memory, according to this study - as well as usage examples, synonyms, and antonyms.

Gelman, B.D., Gruber, M.J., and Ranganath, C. "States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit." Neuron, 22 October 2014, 84(2): 486-496. Web. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.060

Students who are eager to learn are more likely to remember what they have learned, something that the authors of this study demonstrate. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show real-time connections between a person's curiosity about a specific topic, and the production of dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and the brain's reward system. The authors also concluded that a higher level of interest and curiosity in a topic or question leads to better memory and enhanced learning. Including exercises that stimulate curiosity, and providing reward mechanisms as part of the study process, also increases a person's ability to absorb and retain information, as the researchers found. Ultimate Spelling has a text import feature that allows each user to include and incorporate practice material that matches their interests, while learning the spelling of words in those texts. The system also uses several different reward systems to encourage users to continue working towards their defined goals.

Garcia, S.M., Tor, A., and Schiff, T.M. "The Psychology of Competition: A Social Comparison Perspective." Perspectives on Psychological Science, November 2013, 8(6):634-650. Print and web. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1745691613504114

Each person is influenced by a unique set of factors related to their own status and progress towards goals, but is also affected to a greater or lesser degree by the achievements and perceived standards of the people around them. This analysis of past and current studies looks at the way people view and are motivated by individual goals as well as societal achievement (competition). The authors conclude that effective use of motivational strategies must take both into account. This is something that Ultimate Spelling accomplishes by providing each user with the ability to set personal goals, earn reward points, and view their own progress tracking reports, and also to publish all of those results on public social media platforms.

Kivetz, R., Urminsky, O., and Zheng, Y. "The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and Customer Retention." Journal of Marketing Research, February 2006, 43(1):39-58. Web. http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.43.1.39

In a study focusing on the influence of reward-scheme programs on behavior, the authors found that when people see visible progress towards their goals they are more likely to increase the activity required to reach those goals. The study also confirms that most people are also motivated by receiving rewards for completing specific activities, even if those rewards are not immediately transferable to actual material or monetary benefits. Status points, rewards, and real-time progress tracking are all methods used in Ultimate Spelling to encourage frequent spelling practice by awarding points for the completion of exercises and activities. Because the user can access their progress charts at any time, they will always be able to see how close they are to achieving their personal spelling goals.

Buton, M., Winterbauer, N., and Todd, T. "Relapse processes after the extinction of instrumental learning: Renewal, resurgence, and reacquisition." Behavioural Processes, May 2012, 90(1): 130–141. Print and web. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2012.03.004

Instrumental learning, also called "operant conditioning," is a method by which behaviors are learned in connection with a stimulus, a reward, or both. In this research done at the University of Vermont, the authors studied the ways in which the information connected to a specific behavior is retained when the stimulus is removed, and how subsequent repetition or reward reinforces information recall and a resumption of previously learned behaviors. They conclude that there are two primary methods of reinforcing active memory and behavior: by creating a different way to test the subject's memory, and by providing the opportunity for intensive focused repetition of that stimulus-behavior response. These two methods are widely used in the Ultimate Spelling activities and games to create the link between instruction and memory that is so crucial in effective spelling learning on the student's part.

Xue, G., Mei, L., Chen, C., Lu, Z-L., Poldrack, R., Dong, Q. "Spaced Learning Enhances Subsequent Recognition Memory by Reducing Neural Repetition Suppression." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2011;23(7):1624-1633. Print and web. http://doi:10.1162/jocn.2010.21532

In this study comparing long-term and short-term memory, the study authors tested the neural activity of participants as they memorized a set of images. Half of the study participants used massed learning techniques, in which each new image was presented multiple times in a row; the other half were given the images in a spaced repetition mode, where the images were shown in alternating order. Although each participant saw each image the same number of times, the people in the spaced-repetition exercise were able to accurately remember more images, and for a longer period of time. Repetition is a key technique in learning spelling, and Ultimate Spelling incorporates spaced repetition in two ways. First, the system uses randomized selection of spelling words from the user's current list to populate the activities and exercises, ensuring an interval between word reviews. Second, the system's Word Discover feature provides pop-up instant review of the words on that list, again in random order. By providing users with multiple opportunities throughout the day to read and review their words, Ultimate Spelling provides all of the benefits of the spaced repetition methodology in its spelling instruction.

Blocki, J., Cranor, L., Datta, A., and Komanduri, S. "Spaced Repetition and Mnemonics Enable Recall of Multiple Strong Passwords." Cornell University Library, January 3, 2015. PDF. http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.1490v2

Spaced repetition is a memory training tool that relies on frequent and consistent review of information; mnemonics is a memory technique that involves multiple ways of looking at that information, such as the incorporation of images or story lines. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University focused on the combination of spaced repetition and mnemonics in evaluating how best to train people to remember specific pieces of information: computer passwords. They found that by combining the two methodologies, the results in both ease of learning and retention were increased. Ultimate Spelling uses each method separately and together to help users learn and remember new spelling words by using the same words in multiple exercises, presenting spelling words in a variety of formats, and encouraging users to add information related to each word to make a personal connection that helps them to remember that word and its correct spelling.

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Dyslexic Spelling in Children


February 23, 2012

Learning how to spell words correctly is often a frustrating experience for children, as they have to learn to cope with all of the different variations in English spelling, often while they’re learning the meaning of the words at the same time. Depending on the class size, many children may not get the additional one-on-one time they need to help them work through their questions. If you’re a parent, it’s important that you spend time helping your child with his or her spelling work, to reinforce what is learned at school and to give the child encouragement as well as assistance.

For children with dyslexia, spelling can turn into a nightmare. Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes it difficult for someone to read, write, and spell. People with dyslexia frequently see words as having scrambled or transposed letters. What’s worse, even if they know how a word is correctly spelled, they may have difficulty writing it down – and may not even be aware that they’ve made an error, because they “see” it as correct. Children with undiagnosed dyslexia may get a reputation for being poor spellers and readers, and even having lower IQ scores, just because they aren’t getting the help they need to overcome this disability.

In an interesting article discussing the difficulties dyslexic children have learning English as a second language, we found some tips that will help parents and teachers in any classroom situation. Here are some highlights you might want to keep in mind when helping your child study for their next spelling test:

Don’t just circle the wrong letters. Because a dyslexic student may not be seeing the letters in the right order, circling a misplaced letter doesn’t give them any useful information. Instead, cross out the misspelled word and write the correctly-spelled word next to it. This helps the student compare the visual shape of the wrong and right words, and makes it easier to recognize the pattern in the future.

Don’t rely on visual tools alone. Obviously, since the visual element of spelling is something that is not reliable in this case, it will help to incorporate other senses when teaching spelling. Have the student say the word out loud, write the word out, or add a picture or image.

Don’t push too hard. A child with dyslexia is already experiencing stress and frustration, so make sure to give them frequent rest breaks. Even better, try to come up with a game to teach spelling patterns – and don’t forget to provide a reward for work well done.

Learn to Love Spelling


February 14, 2012

Take heart! Even if you’re currently frustrated with trying to learn all of the many (and often contradictory) rules of English spelling, the good news is that once you have the basics down, it’s really a matter of building on that solid base and handling the exceptions as they come along. This will require study, and it will take some time, but think of the benefits you’ll get in the end: you’ll breeze through your school studies without getting back any term papers marked with the dreaded red pen; you’ll be confident in sending out e-mails and department memos without worrying that people will be laughing at misspelled words; you’ll have the resources to read, understand, and write about the things that are essential for your work and personal progress. And if you understand and enjoy the benefits of being a good speller, you can pass that appreciation on to your children. The earlier people learn how to spell, and how to enjoy having the ability to spell, the better.

It’s often easier to enjoy learning how to spell when there’s an element of fun involved. Look for word- or spelling-based games on line or as part of the spelling software you purchase. If you’re buying spelling software make sure that it supports different user levels so that all members of your family can benefit from it, no matter their ages. You can also play the games found in many daily newspapers that involve words. By doing the crossword puzzle, you’ll find that your eye learns the patterns in words by filling in the blanks. You’ll also be exposed to new words, which will give you a better understanding of English vocabulary as well as English spelling rules. If there’s a “word jumble” game where you need to rearrange letters to form words, this is another great way to learn patterns of letters in English words. Even a word search game, while not requiring you to know how to spell, is useful – again, it gives you a list of words you might not know, and they’ll be correctly spelled.

Take every opportunity in work and play to focus on spelling, and you’ll love the results.

How Spelling and Pronunciation are Linked


February 6, 2012

Unlike several other world languages, the vowel sounds in English aren’t fixed. In Japanese, for example, the sound we’d represent by the letter a is always pronounced AH. In English, on the other hand, the letter a can be pronounced AY (as in plane or AH (as in calm) or A (as in bat). As you might imagine, this makes learning English extremely difficult for people whose native language has more, shall we say, logical rules when it comes to pronunciation. There are many rules to learn related to English spelling, and we’ll cover most of them in this blog.

One simple rule that you may have learned as a child is a way to identify “long” and “short” vowels. The “long” vowel sound is when the vowel “says its name” in the pronunciation of the word:

a is pronounced AY (as in lame)
e is pronounced EE (as in cede)
i is pronounced EYE (as in bite)
o is pronounced OH (as in vote)
u is pronounced YOU (as in fuse)

If you look at these words, you’ll notice that the target vowel in each case is between two consonants, and there’s an e at the end of the word. This final “e” is what changes the sound of the vowel from short to long.

bit (an IH sound) v. bite (an EYE sound)

For the most part, when a vowel is alone between two consonants, it will have the “short” vowel sound, unless there’s an “e” at the end of the word.

Consonants also change pronunciation depending on where they are in the word, and what letters surround them. The letter g is one that changes frequently, and causes a lot of confusion. It can be pronounced with either a “soft” sound (J, as in the word magic) or a “hard” sound (G, as in the word given), and can even have the sound ZH (as in the word prestige). Here are some examples:

guitar (G)
religion (J)
language (the first is G, the second J)
genuine (J)
hunger (G)
manager (J)
energy (J)
garage (the first is G, the second ZH [British English would be J])
guardian (G)
courageous (J)

Note that the -ger at the end of manager is the same as in hunger, but the pronunciation is different.

Because there are so many combinations of letters and consonants, it’s hard sometimes to summarize every English spelling rule easily, and even the established “rules” always have exceptions. However, if you take the time to review words and note both their pronunciation and their spelling, you’ll build up a mental database of English spelling conventions that will help you with any new words you learn.

How Spelling Changes With Parts of Speech


January 30, 2012

One of the things about English spelling rules that many people find confusing is how the basic spelling of a word changes when the word is modified to become a different part of speech (this is often referred to as “derivation”). That is, when you change a noun into a verb, for example, you’ll often be altering the spelling of that word as well. Not all words will change – you can drive (verb) your car on a sunny Sunday drive (noun) in the country. Most of the time, though, you’ll be changing the ends of words and often some other letters besides. Here are some examples of common alterations:

Changing nouns to verbs. Certain nouns are changed to verbs by adding the suffix -fy or -ify. Notice that in most cases the existing vowel towards the end of the word is replaced by the letter i.

terror / terrify
satisfaction / satisfy
unity / unify
mystery / mystify
significance / signify
justice / justify
certificate / certify

Another common noun-to-verb change is accomplished with the suffix -ize. In this case, there are usually fewer or no changes to the original word’s spelling.

critic / criticize
fiction / fictionalize
terror / terrorize

The adjective random becomes the verb randomize using this same rule.

Changing adjectives to nouns. A spelling change occurs to the original word when you add the suffix -nce, -ence, or -ance to an adjective to make it a noun.

absent / absence
different / difference
violent / violence
important / importance
patient / patience

The verb deliver becomes the noun deliverance by this rule as well.

Another common way to change an adjective to a noun is by adding -ness to the end of the word. If the original adjective ends in a y, you need to change the y to an i.

happy / happiness
slow / slowness
late / lateness
careless / carelessness
pretty / prettiness

These are only some of the examples of spelling changes with word derivations, and we’ll have more examples in future posts.

The Complicated History of English Spelling


January 19, 2012

The development of the English language involved millions of people, thousands of years, and journeys to several continents. Although today we often think of “English” as “the language that originated in England,” from the beginning people adopted words from French, German, and Italian as well as from older Latin and Greek roots and the underlying Anglo-Saxon languages, all of which had different orthographies (ways of spelling words). Add to that the fact that English continues as a living language today, constantly being updated and changed and expanded, and you’ll begin to understand why some people can make the study of English words and spelling their life’s work.

One such person was Christopher Upward, a lecturer at Aston University, Birmingham, and a proponent of “simplified spelling,” which tries to eliminate some of the confusing aspects of English spelling by getting rid of doubled letters, silent letters, and any other letter combinations that don’t help with pronunciation. The total number of letters in words is generally reduced by about ten percent with this method. For example, the word easy would be spelled “esy” using simplified spelling, because the “a” is silent (that is, easy is not pronounced E-A-zee, but rather E-zee). Simplified spelling (also called “cut spelling”) has not been adopted yet, but who knows? Perhaps over the next few centuries of English language evolution the words we see today will look as strangely-spelled to our descendants as those of Chaucer to our modern eyes.

If you’re interested in learning more about English spelling past and present, we recommend one of the books written by Christopher Upward (along with George Davidson), titled The History of English Spelling. Once you understand the many reasons why words are spelled the way they are, you’ll find that you have less difficulty spelling them, and that will definitely help you in the future.

Ultimate Spelling Success Stories


January 18, 2012

Welcome valued Ultimate Spelling user!

We love to hear stories about how our customers benefited from Ultimate Spelling. Not only does this make us feel happy, it also helps us communicate the benefits of Ultimate Spelling to other people.

If your child has had success using Ultimate Spelling, we’d LOVE to hear about it. Please tell us your story by commenting on the post below.

What makes a good success story?

We love success stories that have any of the following:

Be specific – tell us the details of your child’s success with Ultimate Spelling.

Give an example – What happened? How great was the improvement of your child’s spelling after using Ultimate Spelling? What results did they get before and after using Ultimate Spelling?

Make it long enough, but not too long. 2-4 sentences is perfect.

By writing a story here, you are giving us permission to publish your story along with your photo and basic info on this post and in our marketing. For a limited time, if we decide to publish your story in our marketing, you will receive a $100 voucher to spend on any eReflect product. Thanks for your help – we appreciate it!

What Can Be Done to Fix English Spelling Problems?


January 11, 2012

There’s long been a debate over difficulties with English spelling – since the 15th century, in fact, when printed documents were first widely produced in England. It has been so many centuries since English was first written down that today we’re more or less used to it, and just accept the eccentricities of English as part of the natural form of the language. However, there are people who continue to argue that English spelling is unnecessarily complicated, and that it causes problems in literacy, education, and even future career prospects on a personal and national level.

As we mentioned in this post, English is vastly more complicated than many other languages because of the sheer number of different ways that letters can be combined to form sounds (the term for these letter/sound combinations is graphemes). As an example, look at all of these different ways the sound “A” can be spelled:

vein
table
player
ballet
weight
straighten
greater

This causes serious confusion among non-English speakers, and some studies show that it adds an additional two to three years to the process of learning English, something that has a major impact on a child’s educational development.

There was an interesting on-line conversation recently at The Guardian between someone who advocates a complete revision of spelling rules for simplicity and consistency, saying, “It is our language and we can spell it how we want.” In response, another reader cautions against wholesale simplification, partly due to the fact that so many words use the same sounds and can only be distinguished by their spelling. For example, would you be able to immediately understand this sentence, or would you have to think twice about what it meant?

The cheesemaker needs to way the way and then set it aside out of the way.

If you realized that the cheesemaker needs to weigh the whey and set it out of the way, then you’ve got an excellent ability to get meaning from context. Unfortunately, many people would just be confused.

What’s your opinion? Should we keep English spelling as it is, and take pride in its sometimes baroque construction? Or should there be an effort to make English spelling a little simpler and easier to learn? If you’re of the second opinion, you might be interested in learning about The English Spelling Society here.

The Chaos of English Pronunciation vs. Spelling


January 3, 2012

As we’ve said before, one of the hardest parts about learning how to correctly spell English vocabulary is dealing with the many different letter combinations that form the different sounds when a word is pronounced, and the dozens of different ways those sounds are spelled in English. The confusion arises when the same letters end up as different sounds in different words; for example, the a in the word “path” (pronounced AH) is not the same sound as the a in the word “late” (pronounced AY). When two or more letters are combined, the possible pronunciations can seem endless – and endlessly confusing. Here are several stanzas from a poem titled “The Chaos” written in 1922 by Gerard Trenité that provides examples of many of these pronunciation problems. Can you pronounce, and spell, every word correctly?

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you’ll tear;
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, hear and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.

Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter how it’s written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,

Previous, precious, fuchsia, via
Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;
Woven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Say, expecting fraud and trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles,
Missiles, similes, reviles.

Wholly, holly, signal, signing,
Same, examining, but mining,
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far.

For the full text of the poem, click here.

The 2011 Top Fifteen Hardest Words to Spell


December 29, 2011

Back in June the 84th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee stumped its young competitors with words like huipil (a traditional Mayan tunic-style top) and puszta (the grassy plains in Hungary). If you want to give yourself a New Year’s challenge, try learning these other competitive words, and amaze your friends with your orthographic skills!

pelerine (peh-luh-REEN)
A 19th-century short cape worn by women.

capoeira (kah-POO-ay-ruh)
A Brazilian form of martial arts that incorporates dance and music.

bourride (boo-REED)
A garlicky French fish stew.

urushiye (oo-roo-SHEE-yay)
A Japanese print using lacquer instead of paint for some of the colors.

sangsue (SAHN-soo)
A leech (from the French; literally “blood-suck”).

komatik (KOH-mah-tik)
A dogsled used in northeastern Canada.

cebell (suh-BELL)
An English dance popular in the 17th century.

lekane (LEH-kuh-nee)
An ancient Greek pottery vessel shaped like a large bowl.

panguingue (pan-GEE-nee)
A Philippine card and gambling game.

galoubet (gah-loo-BAY)
A small Renaissance-era pipe similar to a recorder, but with only three holes.

naumkeag (NOM-keg)
A factory machine for smoothing down shoe soles.

hooroosh (huh-ROOSH)
A state of confusion or excitement.

orgeat (OR-zhah)
A syrup made from almonds and sugar.

periscii (PUH-rih-see-ee)
People who live above the Arctic Circle (or below the Antarctic Circle).

cymotrichous (sigh-MAH-trik-us)
Having wavy hair.

Did these words inspire you or your children to participate in a spelling bee? You can go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee site for information on how to organize a spelling bee at your local schools, get resources on spelling improvement, and find out how to study for and enter the competition. Find out more here.

One Spelling Error Could Cost You Thousands of Dollars


December 23, 2011

If you’re a businessperson with an online shop or marketing site, you’ll want to pay particular attention to this post. A recent study in England estimated that millions of dollars in sales are lost by online businesses each year due to spelling mistakes on the company websites and promotional materials. Of course, this undoubtedly happens with brick-and-mortar businesses as well; someone walking down the street might laugh at a misspelled sign in the window, but that probably won’t be what tempts them inside to make a purchase. Compared to traffic passing a downtown storefront, there are many more people “strolling by” the internet-based business windows (web pages) and because these visitors often make their decisions in the first few seconds on the site, a glaring error in spelling will make them click on, rather than clicking through to buy the product.

One mistake some business web developers make is to assume that the “text speak” and abbreviations used on Twitter and Facebook are also suitable for a virtual storefront. However, since there are so many spam and phishing scams trying to separate people from their money – and because one of the quickest ways to identify a spam message is the presence of multiple spelling errors – if a website for a business doesn’t look professional, the customers won’t trust it.

As a business owner, you need to make sure that you check every aspect of your website and your marketing materials before they become public. Make sure the people you hire to create your site have the spelling skills you want as well as the web design skills you need.

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