SA Journal of Education, Vol 28, No 1 (2008)

Typing speed, spelling accuracy, and the use of word-predictionTyping speed, spelling accuracy, and the use of word-prediction

Erna Alant, Marina Herold, Juan Bornman

Abstract


Children with spelling difficulties are lim ited in their participation in all written school activities. We aimed to investigate the influence of word-prediction as a tool on spelling accuracy and typing speed. To this end, we selected 80 Grade 4 – 6 children with spelling difficulties in a school for special needs to participate in a research project involving a cross-over within-subject design. The research task took the form of entering 30 words through an on-screen keyboard, with and without the use of word-prediction software. The G raded W ord Spelling Test served to investigate whether there was a relationship between the children’s current spelling knowledge and word-prediction efficacy. The results indicated an increase in spelling accuracy with the use of word-prediction, but at the cost of time and the tendency to use word approxim ations, and no significant relationship between spelling knowledge and word-prediction efficacy.

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