Some contingencies of spelling.

This paper presents some speculation about the contingencies that might select standard spellings. The speculation is based on a new development in the teaching of spelling-the process writing approach, which lets standard spellings emerge collateral to a high frequency of reading and writing. The paper discusses this approach, contrasts it with behavior-analytic research on spelling, and suggests some new directions for this latter research based on a behavioral interpretation of the process writing approach to spelling.