Good spelling is a skill that can be learnt, if you are willing to make an effort. Primary school children use this method to learn to spell - LOOK SAY COVER WRITE This method is particularly successful because it covers all the major learning styles. Some people are visual learners, so they should LOOK at a word to visualiZe it and learn it. Some people are auditory learners, so they should SAY the word and LISTEN. You are trying to learn the word and REMEMBER it, so if you COVER the word, you force yourself to REMEMBER it. Some people are kinesthetic learners, so they should put the word into ACTION by WRITING it to learn and remember it. It sounds like a lot of word to begin with, but it is REALLY QUITE SIMPLE once you get into the habit. Remember, very little learning takes place without EFFORT. You must make the EFFORT to learn and remember how to spell words. READING GIVES YOU EXPOSURE TO A WIDER VOCABULARY, SO READ AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.

To memorize a list of words, the best way is to make up a set of index cards. Write the word on one side of the card, and if you are memorizing definitions, write the definition on the other. If you are learning how to spell the word, just use the one side of the card. Carry these cards with you everywhere! Whenever you have a free minute (standing in a line, riding to and from school, waiting for class to start, anywhere there is free time), take out your cards and work. Look at the first card - study it for a moment, then try to answer it to yourself (either spelling the word correctly without looking at it, or reciting the correct definition). If you do that word correctly, then turn the card upside down and put it at the very back of the stack. If you still don't know that word, then study the correct definition or spelling and repeat it over to yourself - then stick that card anywhere in the middle of the stack without turning it over. When all of your cards are turned over, you have learned the words!

My daughter in primary school, has a list of words each week. When she gets the words, she makes a sentence with each one. Each day she writes the words out once. On Friday, she knows the words. . When I was at school, I wrote the words out dozens of times & still have terrible spelling. Luckily my daughter has her mother's smart genes.

Also, some words have tricks to remember the spelling. "I" before "e", except after "c" = believe, receive. And other words you can see they come from the same 'family' so they will be spelled the same, but I can't think of any examples right now, and I don't think that would help a non-native anyway.