Thanks for your comments, Bonita.

Truespel, as a phonetic spelling that uses no special symbols and spells out 
all schwas.  It's not fair to all accents to pick one dominant form, such as 
~is for ending "ous".  I had to do a lot of listening to pick the spelling 
of some of those schwas.  Accents will vary.  In fact truespel can be used 
to write accents for better understanding for kids.  That's basically what 
it is - a simple English friendly phonetic writing system.

Regarding using truespel as an initial teaching system for kids, this idea 
seamed compromised to me also by the realization that kids would have to 
unlearn it to learn tradspel (traditional spelling).  However, IBM's Writing 
to Read method, as test by ETS with over 6,000 k-1 kids, found that learning 
to write and read phonetically not only improved learning, but the effect 
lasted through transition to tradspel.  Truespel need not be unlearned.  
There are now dictionaries using truespel (truespel dictionaries books 2 and 
3) so one need never forget it, especially when future translation guides 
use it.

Note that phonemic awareness is enhanced teaching truespel, and that is the 
key ingrediant they found for successful readers.  In light of this, England 
is switching its early reading system (based on studies with 300 kids) to 
"synthetic phonics" which is a phonemic awareness method.  Thus, the concept 
of teaching phonetics first is proven.  I believer truespel would be good 
for this application.  No other phonetic spelling systems are really user 
friendly enough to do this.

So thanks for your input.  Truespel is a tool awaiting many uses.  It's 
dictionary is over 60,000 words and faily complete.  It's free to use 
through the converter at truespel.com.  Of interest is that once a text 
passage is converted, if you convert it back you'll see all the homonyms 
(words pronounced the same).

I'll gladly support any application.  Some interesting ones is that an 
animator is using it for mouth movements and a chip maker says that his 
voice chip works best with truespel based voice modeling.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+
See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.






>From: Bonnita Solberg <bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net>

>Reply-To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion 

>List<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

>To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion 

>List<englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

>Subject: [EnglishLanguage 927] Re: Help with pronunciation issues

>Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 10:38:17 -0800 (PST)

>

>Tom and Colleagues:

>

>I am very interested in a system of pronunciation that makes spelling easy 

>for adults learning English as a second language with the wide range of 

>education backgrounds, or lack of it, in the immigrant population we serve 

>in public schools.  I have investigated a lot of systems with the hope of 

>finding one that students can easily use and have not found one that is 

>effective for both pronouncing a word and spelling it, so I am in the long 

>process of developing a system that includes both.  Naturally I was 

>intrigued by "truespel".  I think it would work for a student with a solid 

>education background, who could decode well and intellectually confront the 

>system.  It is also a good guide for pronunciation for teachers who have 

>little or no background in phonics/linguistics, and in that venue is 

>extremely valuable.  I would recommend it to the teahers I train to teach 

>in the ESL classroom.  It is not a system I would teach to students because 

>it does not pair spelling with

>  pronunciation.  Based on past experience with similar strategies, the 

>conversion process would be confusing and take an enormous amount of 

>classtime to teach the students we serve.

>

>I did find some problems with the system in my short investigation.  For 

>instance, and this may be my west coast accent, in number 30 ("sh" sound) 

>of the phonemes, the word "precious" is given the truespel conversion of 

>"preshis".  Rather than the "is" sound at the end, I would pronounce it 

>with an "us" sound as in "nut" or "us".  In the tutorial about the fox, the 

>word "jumped", the final "d" is given the sound of "d", whereas I would 

>pronounce it with a "t" sound.  My computer rendition of the introductory 

>paragraph displayed some grammar and punctuation problems that may be due 

>to the format on my computer.  Is this system under still construction?  It 

>is an admirable undertaking and one I would like to see at its completion.  

>Thanks for making this available to us.

>

>  Bonnita Solberg, Teacher on Special Assignment

>Oakland Unified School District

>

>Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote: A simple phonetic guide for USA 

>English is at truespel.com.  Click the

>converter button and go to the converter page.  The first converter is the

>URL converter.  The entire internet can be converted to truespel, the

>world's first pronunciation guide spelling/writing system.

>

>Further down the page is the text converter.  Paste passages into it and

>click convert to see it respelled phonetically in USA English accent.

>

>The model for the pronunciation is the spoken words of the American 

>Heritage

>Talking dictionary and m-w.com.  This is standard USA accent.

>

>Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL4+

>See truespel.com and the 4 truespel books at authorhouse.com.

>

>

>

>

>

> >From: Paul Rogers

>

> >Reply-To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion

> >List

> >To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion

> >List

> >Subject: [EnglishLanguage 921]  Help with pronunciation issues

> >Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 12:52:37 -0800 (PST)

> >

> >Concerning teaching pronunciation, I have written a series of texts that

> >include pronunciation lessons for beginning Spanish speakers, with

> >vocabulary spelled two ways: normally and "phonetically". These lesson 

>have

> >proven to be very effective and, I believe, assist the student in an

> >overall way in learning English.

> >   For more information, go to my web site: PUMAROSA.COM.

> >   Paul Rogers

> >

> >Kathryn Quinn  wrote:

> >           Martin:

> >   I know exactly how you feel.  I was facilitating an English program 

>with

> >a number of SE Asian students.  One very diligent student from Viet Nam

> >came for advisement at the end of the semester.  She'd taken a

> >pronunciation class and kept saying what sounded like "I failed.  I

> >failed."  I kept trying to encourage her telling her that she hadn't 

>failed

> >but she was working hard and making some progress.  If she took the 

>course

> >again, she'd do better.  Only to find out that what she was trying to say

> >was "I passed.  I passed."

> >   Use mirrors!  Have them look at themselves in the mirror as they say 

>the

> >sounds, in initial position as well as word final.  Help them speak 

>slowly.

> >  Have them look at you as you mouth words with stops.  Have them listen

> >for the sounds and identify when they hear them.  Have them record

> >themselves to see if they can hear them when they've said them.  And in

> >pronunciation class, don't pretend you can understand them clearly when 

>you

> >can't.

> >   Best wishes.

> >   Kathryn Quinn

> >     ----- Original Message -----

> >   From: Martin Senger

> >   To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List

> >   Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 2:31 PM

> >   Subject: [EnglishLanguage 917] Help with pronunciation issues

> >

> >

> >   Pax et bonum all! (peace & goodness)

> >

> >   I am an adult ESL teacher in Erie, PA. I am looking for information on

> >teaching pronunciation skills to SE Asian students, who seem to have a

> >particular problem with stops sounds ([p], [b], etc.). Any suggestions

> >would be greatly appreciated!

> >

> >---------------------------------

> >

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