In which of the following ways should a teacher address the inconsistencies of English pronunciation among related words (e.g., do, does, doing, done and go, goes, going, gone) to help students learn to decode and encode words accurately?

• A. by expressing to students that we have varying pronunciations of words that look alike but may not sound alike and having them practice spelling and pronouncing some of these words
• B. by teaching students that English orthography has a structure based on morphology, etymology, and phonology, showing them base morphemes (e.g., do, go) and suffixes (e.g., -es, -ing, -ne), and then building the words together
• C. by showing students how to represent the sounds they hear in a word phonetically
• D. by explaining the inconsistencies of words, discussing the main rules of spelling, and introducing students to these exceptions to the rules

Answer: (B)

Understanding how spelling reflects word structure helps students decode and encode related words that look similar but sound different. Teaching orthography through morphology, etymology, and phonology shows how base morphemes carry meaning and how suffixes change form and sound. Using the examples do/go as base forms, adding -s for third-person singular gives does and goes, adding -ing forms doing and going, and the irregular past participles done and gone illustrate how history and structure shape spelling. When students see these connections, they can predict correct spellings and pronunciations across related words, strengthening both decoding and encoding.

Other approaches that focus only on listing pronunciations or rote rules don’t provide a reusable framework for understanding how related word forms are built, which is essential for applying patterns to new words.