(N.B. Standard International Phonetic Symbols are not used occasionally in this essay in order to avoid any distortion when being shown on the screen)

Introduction
For optimum literacy, the spelling must show how words are spoken and their pronunciation must show how words are spelt. However, it is obvious not the case of English. English spelling is notorious for its frequent failure in reflecting the actual pronunciation of the words, and this has recurred much criticism. It is not surprising to see that even the most literate may misread unfamiliar words (especially the names of people and places ) and are prone to spelling mistakes. Non-native speakers may face the additional hazard of mispronouncing misleading spellings. As some experts suggest 1“Without modernization, spelling becomes ever more confused and literacy harder to acquire, and all education suffers”. For these reasons, spelling reform of English has been included in the agenda of many linguists over centuries (2The first English spelling reformer was a monk named Orrm who invented a new set of spellings in writing his poems Ormulum in 13th Century).

As 3Mitton suggests, it is believed that the relationship of the spelling to the pronunciation was more straightforward in Old English than at any later time. However, over centuries, as pronunciation changes and words are borrowed from other languages, this correspondence between letters and sounds is undermined.

The Irregularities of English Spellings
Generally speaking, the irregularity of English spelling are reflected in six different aspects:
1. Silent letters;
2. Representation of different phonemes by the same letter;
3. Representation of a phonemes by different (groups of) letters;
4. Exceptional spellings not reflecting the actual pronunciation;
5. Doubling of letters;
6. Words having more than one pronunciations.

1. Silent letters
       There are occasions that letter(s) in a word is not produced in pronunciation, such as e in ate, late, some;
       h in Buddhism, khaki; k in knee, knight, ch in yacht.

2. Representation of different of phonemes by the same letter
There are occasions that a letter may represent more than one phoneme, such as ch may represent  / "chu" / (as in chair) or
/ "sh" /  (as in champion, Chicago) or / k / (as in chemist); e may represent / e / (as in decimal) or / i / (as in design),
and i may represent / ai / (as in dilate) or / e / (as in dish).

3. Representation of a phonemes by different (groups of) letters
There are occasions that a phonemes may be represented by different (groups of )letters, such as / f / can be represented
by f (as in fan) or ph (as in phone);  / ai / can be represented by i (as in diary) or y (as in dye, type).

4. Exceptional spellings which do not reflect the actual pronunciation
There are occasions that the spelling of a word does not reflect the actual pronunciation at all, such as foreign (pronounced
as / foren /, but not  / forein / as expected), centre (pronounced as / centa /, but not / centri / as expected) and sceptic (pronounced as / skeptik /, but not / septik / as expected).

5. Doubling of letters
There are occasions that letters are doubled serving no specific purpose. Usually, this occurs with grammatical modification on the words, such as travelling (comes from travel); stopped (comes from stop), and omitting (comes from omit).

6. Words having more than one pronunciations
      There are occasions that a single word may have more than one pronunciation, such as
     tear (/ tia / or / tea /), lead (/ led / or / lid /)  and read (/ rid / or / red /).

Solution to the Irregularities on Spellings
In general , there are three main solutions to the irregularity of spelling.

Firstly, more letters can be adopted to represent the phonemes of English. It is made possible by the fact that we have more sounds than symbols. According to 4 Mitton, although the number of phonemes in English vary from one authority to another, devising an orthography on the

alphabetic principle, an alphabet of all English phonemes, one for each consonant or vowel phoneme, is theoretically feasible.

Secondly, those redundant letters which serving no purpose are deleted, such as changing programme into program;
traveller into traveler.

Thirdly, exceptional spellings are changed into a new form so as to match with their actual pronunciation , such as changing centre into center.

Further Discussion to the Reform on English Spellings
Although there is such a great demand on making reform on the inefficient spelling system of English, there are some points worth noting and discussing when dealing with this problem.

Present English spelling system is, though, not efficient, it still has some advantages. Firstly, present system can, sometimes, help simplify the grammar of English. For example, as what 5Haas suggests, in English, the plurality is always marked by adding s to the root noun, instead of writing it phonetically faithfully as sometimes s or sometimes z, and past tense for regular verbs is always marked by adding -ed to the root verb (though the phonetic value is / d / or / t /). This facilitates those English learners to grasp these two important grammatical rules. Besides, it is sensible to distinguish the phonetically identical final vowels in polar, author and baker, so as to relate them to their origins polarity, authority and bakery respectively.
 
However, from this conclusion, drawbacks may also arise from the reform on English spelling. For example, new irregularities may arise from changing centre into center, if we focus on the relation between centre and the adjective derived from it (i.e. central), since the linkage between center and central (as the word-ending is changed from -ter to -tral) is definitely less prominent than that of between centre and central (as the word ending is changed from - tre to - tral ). This is just the same case in changing judgement to judgment, when focus is brought on the relation between judgment and judge. Many may wonder, based on the same logic, why  the spelling judge is adopted, but not judg instead.

Further, it should be noted that the irregular spelling of many loan words and technical terms is close to the spelling of  their origin, say French, or German. This can help those who do not know English at all to grasp the substance of an English scientific text easily. Also, the irregular spelling of such loan words retains the evidences which suggest the origin from where they are borrowed. This facilitates the studies of the etymology of these words.

Although there is such a great demand on making reform on the inefficient spelling system of English, it is still not a easy task to implement this. One of the reasons is that, although English spelling is indeed difficult for beginners, the present users who are used to those spellings will never allow major changes. Another reason is mainly due to national prestige or identity. As 6Hass says, “spelling is a kind of social habit that everyone acquires in our childhood, and some may even regard the peculiarities and intricacies of English spelling with love and veneration, as something particularly characteristic of English”. That may help explain why some words of American-amended form are rejected by the British as they may want to reject those American flavour that comes with these words.

Bibliography
1. Reference material, Modernizing English spelling: Principles & Practicalities,
    from the web-site: < http://www.les.aston.ac.uk/sss/ssspp.html >
    by unknown author(s)
2. Vallins, G. H., Spelling, (1965, London: Andre Deutsch), p. 91
3. Mitton, Roger, English Spelling and the Computer, (1996, London & New York: Longman),
    p. 10
4. Mitton, Roger, English Spelling and the Computer, (1996, London & New York: Longman),
    p. 24
5. Haas, W, Alphabets for English, (1969, England: Manchester University Press), p. 6
6. Haas, W, Alphabets for English, (1969, England: Manchester University Press), p. 54