Rick Rogers, Italy
I have some students here in Italy who display the same characteristics and who cause me the same problems. I've tried many different strategies but probably the most useful have been exercises in which they need to:

1) Read and memorise the written form of several pre-selected phrases before trying to re-write them correctly.
2) Read and memorise pre-selected phrases or a text before being presented with a copy of the text or phrases containing a certain number of spelling mistakes. The students have to identify the mistakes and correct them.
3) Identify silent letters. Students are presented with a text which they need to pre-read. Then you read the text in a natural manner and students have to identify the silent letters in the text. I always try to include common words such as 'knee', 'know', vegetables' and 'caught'.

I hope that this information, albeit very generic, comes in useful!

Frederick, China
I think the student knows the sounds and if he/she knows what the letter sounds like. The teacher could let the student know what letter combinations make up what phonetic sound. E.g food, -oo-/fu:d/, do, -o,/du:/ - long sounds. In this case the student will know what sounds make what words. Also reading could improve his spelling. The main thing is to let students know what combination of words make what phonetic sounds. So then he'll have an idea of the vowels and their sounds.

Marlene, Mexico
Hi Sharon, I think that writing and reading are two skills that must be related. Somebody who is good at writing is usually somebody who reads a lot. First, if I were you, I would ask the student to read certain texts and then I would make him write a short composition, a summary, an essay, etc. or re-write a story (depending on his English level), using the information (and vocabulary) he read.
There are other learning strategies for basic and intermediate students, like using visuals and matching them with words. Then students can write sentences using those words to make a story which they can tell afterwards.
I think it is important to include the reading part in the learning process, so your student can connect what he says to the way the words are written.
Good luck and happy new year!

Juliet, Britain
My guess would be this student has a first language with a more predictable association between sound and spelling. In fact English is not as 'random' as people often think. Try using materials designed for primary schools to demonstrate the grapheme/phomeme correspondance, try interactive sites on www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures. Practising pronunciation, spelling, and reading will help your student to notice spellings in context (crucial for homophones). Use graded readers. Parallel writing with gap-fills should help memorisation of the visual appearance of words.

Helen, The Netherlands
Maybe this sounds a bit odd: get in touch with people who are dyslexic. They will know what to do! If you have more questions get in touch with me. I am a teacher and dyslexic.

Sergio, Mexico
I think that you should practise more with reading and listening. In that way, they will get used to match the word with its sound, and it will be easier for them to remember how to write them. Design exercises that demand the same words used in the previous activities, such as new sentences using the same vocabulary.

Liora Tamir, Israel
Hi, Sharon. I am a teacher of pupils with learning disabilities.
It's most probable that this student is at least disgraphic (maybe dyslexic as well). In this case his visual memory is not developed enough to be able to memorize visually the "sight" words. Try this:
1) Choose the most important words and make a kind of a personal dictionary out of them. Add no more than one word every lesson. Write the words on a colorful paper or in colorful pencils in big size letters. Let the pupil go over these words every lesson trying to visualize them.
2) Give this student a word from the text you are reading and help him memorize it by pointing to the letters which present some difficulty, e.g. in the word "friend" draw his attention to the letter "i".

Suma George, India
Hi Sharon,
This is a problem even I encounter with some of my students. Here are a few possible suggestions:
1. Try to help the child by giving him words which need to be written earlier so that he can memorise the spellings correctly.
2. I think the child has only been taught phonetically in the initial years of his schooling. The spellings have not been given importance at the initial stages of learning.
3. He could also have a problem, do consult a specialist before you administer any technique
4. Do try and connect the spellings with the sounds and help him write the correct spellings as you read out the words.
5. Use a lot of flash cards with the similar sounding words with the spellings of those very same words written in bold on the flash cards
Best of luck.