What is SWI?

It might be surprising to hear that English spelling is not random and full of exceptions. In fact, our spelling system is so logical and well-ordered that it can be investigated and understood through scientific inquiry. Structured Word Inquiry (Bowers and Kirby, 2010) guides us through scientific word investigations that illuminate the sense and order of English spelling.

We all know that “sound it out” only works part of the time. That means it is not a reliable method for determining the spelling of a word. Instead of beginning with sound, when embarking with Structured Word Inquiry (SWI), we begin by asking, “What does the word mean?” This shift in perspective is the key to revealing deeper understanding.

An SWI investigation systematically walks us through the “Four Questions” to guide an inquiry:

What does the word mean?
What is the word’s structure?
What words are related, morphologically or etymologically?
How are the graphemes functioning in the word?

Homophones reveal the importance of meaning

If we ask young children about the word ‘sea’, they will tell us, “There are two kinds of ‘sea’—there’s the ‘ocean sea’ and there’s seeing with your eyes!” When we write the two words on the board and ask them why they are spelled differently, children will answer, “Because they’re different words and they mean different things!”

Homophone pairs are some of the words that make us think English is a confusing and frustrating language to spell. We have ‘to/too/two’ and ‘there/their/they’re’ and hundreds more. But if we begin by thinking about what a word means, we may find that we already have the information we need to understand a spelling.

I recently came across the homophone pair ‘discussed’ and ‘disgust.’ Let’s see if meaning can help us gain clarity around the spelling of these words.

Anchoring the meaning of a word

The word ‘discussed’ is the past tense of ‘discuss’, and so it takes the <-ed> suffix. (It can also act as an adjective, as in ‘the discussed topic’, so it is properly called a ‘past participle.’)

We can then ask, “What does ‘discuss’ mean?” In present day it refers to people talking together, sharing ideas, thoughts, or beliefs. A discussion can be heated, or it can be a way of clarifying and sharing one’s own thinking, such as in a book group discussion.

Identifying the structure

We have already identified two morphemes, or meaning-based building blocks, in ‘discussed’. In SWI we use a tool called the ‘orthographic word sum’ to model the structure of a word. So far, we have evidence for:

discuss + ed --> discussed

The stories of words

If we turn our investigation to the word’s history, or etymology, we can deepen our understanding. The word <discuss> is ultimately derived from the Latin root quatere/quassum, which had the sense and meaning of “to shake, beat, break in pieces.” Later in Latin it developed the sense of “investigate, examine.” An etymology entry will likely point to a <dis-> prefix in this word, as well. Now we can represent the word as further analyzed:

dis + cuss + ed --> discussed

You have likely come across a <dis-> prefix in many other words, such as ‘disagree, disappoint, dislike.’ Here, the <dis-> is representing a sense of “apart,” so something that was ‘discussed’ was literally something being “shaken apart and examined.”

Now we have investigated the word’s structure, furthered our knowledge by learning about the word’s history, and have also come across some related words. In SWI we use the ‘lexical matrix’ to represent a family of words that share the same base element. Here is one for this <cuss> family. It doesn’t have to include every possible related word, but it’s a representation of findings to this point.

I love that ‘percussion’ also evolved from the same Latin root. A discussion with a percussionist might be ear shattering indeed.

(Incidentally, this ‘bound base’ is not related to the free base word ‘cuss’, which is actually a relative of ‘curse.’ The two bases are homographs.)

Phoneme – grapheme correspondences

This family offers several elements we could discuss in terms of spelling and pronunciation. We could study the pronunciation of the <-ed> suffix as /t/.

Something else that stands out is the way <ss> functions in this family. In ‘discussed’, the double <ss> is pronounced /s/, as we would expect. But what happens in the word ‘discussion’? It cannot be spelled *discushon or *discuttion because we would lose the meaningful spelling connection to the other words in the family that share the <cuss> base. And we certainly cannot spell ‘discuss’ with an <sh> at the end and have it represent the proper pronunciation! We see that in certain positions, <ss> can represent the /ʃ/ phoneme as in ‘dish’.

From here we can have students practice reading and writing a bank of other words that contain this pattern to help them orthographically map the grapheme – phoneme correspondences. The study of orthographic phonology is absolutely essential for students to develop as proficient readers and writers. It can feel like a big switch to put this aspect of word study after the other steps in the investigation when we are conditioned to lead with phonics, but it is often the only way to truly understand why a word is spelled with the graphemes it has.

We have just walked through the steps of a structured word investigation. To try it out, I recommend starting with a simple word family game. You can access a free unit that will walk you through each step by signing up with your email on the HOME PAGE.

Building a bank of morphemes

When students regularly investigate the structure of words, they come across certain morphemes frequently. A bank of common prefixes and suffixes can be constructed after studying just a few word families.

Over time, these known morphemes stand out when students arrive at an unfamiliar word. Recognizing familiar structures in new words provides insights to a word’s meaning and spelling and supports vocabulary development and comprehension.

Generalizing understanding and transferring knowledge to other words

If we return to the other word in our homophone pair, <disgust>, we may recognize a possible prefix right away. We could propose a hypothesis for this word’s structure:

dis + gust --> disgust

To support this hypothesis, we can inquire into this word’s history to learn more. The word ‘disgust’ came through French from the Latin root gustare meaning “to taste.” The <gust> in the root gives us evidence for our present-day base element, and now we have a deeper insight into the word’s meaning, too. The <dis-> prefix in this case represents the sense of “opposite of, reversal,” so ‘disgust’ literally means “having a dis-taste” or “desire to be opposite the taste.” We can see how this applies to our current sense and meaning of “revulsion or disapproval.”

The family includes familiar forms like <disgusting, disgusted, disgusts>and it also includes an Italian loan word, <gusto> meaning “taste.” Metaphorically we can imagine that when someone does something “with gusto”, they have a fond taste for it, which leads them forth with enjoyment or zest.

Teaching the interrelation of morphology and phonology

When we look under the surface and consider the meanings of these words, their structure is revealed. When we understand their structure, it becomes clear why the words are spelled the way they are.

Using this knowledge, we can guide students to understand the difference between the /t/ at the end of ‘discussed’ versus ‘disgust’? While they are pronounced the same, they are spelled differently to represent the different meaningful elements. ‘Disgust’ uses the <t> for the spelling of the base, ‘discussed’ ends with a suffix that is also pronounced /t/.

This evidence helps us understand why we can’t say English spelling is simply letters representing sounds. Our spelling system prioritizes the representation of its meaningful structures over pronunciation. Another way to say this is that morphology is the primary driver of spelling, and phonology follows. A language that relies on the interrelation of these two systems is described as ‘morphophonemic,’ and English is, indeed, a morphophonemic language.

Morphological instruction is required to understand spelling, and it should be interwoven with phonology instruction for our younger learners as well as our more proficient students.

A framework, not a program

SWI is not a program with a fixed scope and sequence. The term represents a method for using what is true about our language to understand it better. The specific curriculum and instructional design are left up to the teacher or tutor, provided they support the accurate science of language and learning. Any word that provokes curiosity or interest in a student can be a good one to begin with. One of the first words I worked with was <grandiloquent> because a first grader heard it and wanted to know more about it. Boy, did we collaboratively learn a lot in that student-led inquiry!

Explicit teaching is necessary

To be clear, high-quality inquiry-based learning must include elements of explicit teaching. An investigation should push a student’s understanding of the spelling system forward, and explicit content instruction from an expert will be required to get there. Inquiry does not mean a student wanders about aimlessly trying to glean understanding without a guide.

Since my earlier days with this work, I’ve built a tighter repertoire of concepts and conventions I feel are most generative for students to work with and learn, especially when I’m guiding a classroom of students as opposed to one-on-one tutoring. We can never teach all the words students will encounter over the years, but we can guide them to recognize common conventions and offer the tools that will help them generalize to novel words or take on independent investigations. I discuss the scopes and roadmaps of concepts I use with students in the courses I teach.

Words come in families

In many classrooms, students are confronted with a spelling list of 10 – 20 unconnected words, which happen to share some common phonic feature, and they are asked to memorize those spellings. With SWI, we begin with a set of words that share a base element to anchor meaning-based connections. The deeper the understanding, the more likely students are to remember what they’ve studied. Practice is an essential part of learning, but when students understand why a word is spelled the way it is, practice doesn’t feel like futile memorization.

When we understand something, we experience those “light bulb” moments, and feelings of satisfaction, pride, and inspiration can rush over us. That’s certainly how I have experienced it, and I’ve seen the same in the students I’ve worked with. (Children and adults!)

Most importantly, using inquiry to build one’s own understanding is exciting and joyful. It summons our intellect and moves us to keep learning and growing. We know stories are made of words, but let’s also remember that every word tells a story. And who doesn’t enjoy a good story?