Spellchecking and Prediction – some limitations
Teachers need to be very clear why they are using a particular strategy with a pupil with spelling difficulties. There is a range of approaches that are aimed at improving a pupil’s awareness of phonics, word attack skills and fluency including
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Sherston Rhyme and Analogy Software
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Look, say, cover, write and check software -such as Starspell
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Bordertalk
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The Electronic Library
There is also a selection of methods which aim to circumvent the pupil’s difficulties
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The use of a spellchecker
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The use of a predictive typer
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The use of Autocorrect
There is no evidence that the latter can actually improve a pupil’s performance in spelling as the former can be expected to. A salutary reminder was given in an article by American teacher, Charles MacArthur, http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/technology/word_prediction.html> which concluded;
“An important limitation of both word prediction and spell checking is that neither appears to have much impact on students’ independent spelling skills, at least in the short run. When Thomas and his classmates returned to using the standard word processor, their performance declined to baseline levels. Thus, along with these assistive technologies, teachers need to provide instruction in spelling and other basic writing skills. In addition, teachers and instructional designers could work on the development of instructional methods that integrate instruction in basic skills with assistive technologies.”
(This link no longer leads to the article)
