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This paper aims to shed light on the explicit–implicit paradigm contention in connection with the foreign language area of English spelling. To this end, it frames the subject against the backdrop of the prolonged dispute between implicit, whole language, top-down, or whole-to-part approaches and explicit, traditional, bottom-up, or part-to-whole views. It then furnishes research evidence on the topic by reporting on an investigation with a pre-test, post-test, delayed post-test control group design carried out with third cycle of primary education students. A detailed qualitative diagnosis is offered of the evolution of the experimental and control groups’ performance on five main spelling dimensions (visual/auditory, morphological, orthographic, semantic, and capitalisation and punctuation) prior to the development of an intervention programme which drew the students’ conscious attention to those spelling aspects, after its conclusion one year later, and six months following the finalisation of the treatment. The results, discussed in a final section, clearly highlight the importance of noticing or consciousness-raising in English spelling instruction, point to the significant role of practice in learning to spell in a foreign language, and back up the interface hypothesis when it comes to the teaching of this discipline.
