Spell checking when working online.

Spell checking: working online and working in context E.A. Draffan and Abi James

Not all spell checkers are equal
In accuracy and functionality!

Possible Strategies to consider for spelling support ….
Specialist software with phonetic spelling and homophone checkers: e.g. TextHelp Read and Write, ClaroRead, VeritySpell
Browser spell checkers – built in or add-ons e.g. Google toolbar, ieSpell, Firefox British Dictionary
Spell checkers built into an application – MS Office, part of a web page or integrated into the text editor e.g. Facebook etc.
Web based ‘content sensitive checkers’ e.g. Ginger and Ghotit.

Which spell checking approach to choose?

Toolkit approach – Ira David Socol

The right tool Online or offline Spelling, homophones grammar? While writing or as part of proofing? What support is included in the checker? What “type” of error? How easy to correct? TEST – for spell checkers

No one spell checking solution will fit ALL the environments & tasks that a student will encounter during their course
So we must give them the skills to choose the appropriate tool at the appropriate time in line with their learning preferences.

How are the students spell checking blogs, wikis etc?
Guildford College – 15 students 6 depended on using MS Word with ‘Cut and Paste’.
32 LexDis participants http://www.lexdis.org some used assistive technologies, others said ‘not sure it is right’ ask a human, others cut and pasted from Word, used Google etc…
34 Post graduate students 4 suggested use of Word, Google search and toolbar or Safari on Mac

Is online word processing here?
Who would win in a fight: Microsoft Office or Google Docs?
Microsoft Office 51% (1365 votes)
Google Docs 37% (994 votes)
Tie: They're Both Good 12% (315 votes)
Total Votes: 2674 (Mashable Nov. 09)
Office 2010 ??

The message from students – Keep it simple!

So how accurate are spell checkers?

Non-word error test
Why? assess the accuracy of spell checkers and how close to the top of a suggestion list the target word occurs.
Used database and tests from James & Draffan (2005) of errors made by dyslexic adults and children in free writing and spelling tests
Random sample of 96 errors, includes duplicate errors for the same target word
Random sample of 30 miss-spelling for 30 words from publically available sub-section of the James & Draffan database.

Single non-word error accuracy No updates Results may be updated from users errors Results may be updated from server database 4 7 1 6 (1) 1 1 0 0 7

Some checkers can also correct real word errors
Real word errors can be a caused by a…
Homophone e.g. piece / peace
Typing error, e.g. form / from
Spelling error creating a real-word which a poor reader is unable to detect e.g. told / fold
Homophone checkers identify homophone and suggest alternatives spellings
Contextual spell checkers claim to be able to identify and correct any real-word errors.

What is the difference between grammar checkers and contextual checkers?
Similarities:
Can both change the context of a sentence
Can both change correct text
Differences:
Contextual checkers look for words out of place
Grammar checkers try to apply grammatical rules & correct ALL errors.

Grammar and contextual checking in Word 2007

How do we test contextual spell checkers
Not based on a wordlist or lexicon. Need to:
Identifying the real word error
Suggest correct word
Reasons for failure, in order of magnitude:
Not identifying the real-word error (false negative)
Identifying a correct word as an error (false positive)
Identifying a real-word error but not suggesting the correct word

Test 1: Controlled data
Created 30 sentences, each containing a non-word error from the James & Draffan (2005) database.
Then added a real-word error to each sentence.
Real word error could be:
A homophone e.g. need / knead
Letter transposition, addition or removal to produce a real word e.g. bank / blank
Similar looking or sounding word e.g. involved / evolved

Results of controlled data

Test 2: Free writing example 74 word paragraph by a dyslexic learner:
He duse this at the begen by saying about this purson “sat in a wheeled chair, wating for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was fare away from the solder like he is looken on to the solder . Then leter on in the poem he get moor clowser to him and sturts to discrid his amosins and even get the reader in the amoshen like if you where the solder .
11 non-word errors 7 real-word errors

Word 2007 corrected version
He does this at the begen by saying about this person “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was fare away from the solder like he is looking on to the solder . Then later on in the poem he get moor closer to him and starts to discrid his amosins and even get the reader in the amoshen like if you where the solder .
4 non-word errors 7 real-word errors remain
7 errors corrected

IE Spell corrected version
He duse this at the begen by saying about this person “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was fare away from the solder like he is looking on to the solder . Then later on in the poem he get moor closer to him and starts to discrid his emotions and even get the reader in the amoshen like if you where the solder .
7 errors corrected

Google toolbar corrected version
He duse this at the begen by saying about this person “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was fare away from the solder like he is looking on to the solder . Then later on in the poem he get moor closer to him and starts to discrid his amosins and even get the reader in the amoshen like if you where the solder .
6 errors corrected

VeritySpell corrected version
He does this at the begen by saying about this person “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was far away from the solder like he is looking on to the solder . Then later on in the poem he get moor closer to him and starts to describe his emotions and even get the reader in the emotion like if you were the solder .

1 non-word error 5 real-word errors remain
13 errors corrected

Ginger corrected version
He does this at the begen by saying about this person “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was far away from the soldier like he is looking onto the solder . Then later on in the poem he gets more closer to him and starts to describe his emotions and even get the reader in the emotions like if you where the solder .
14 errors corrected

Read & Write 9 toolbar corrected version
He does this at the beginning by saying about this person “sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,” now Owen in this poem starts off if he was fare away from the solder like he is looking on to the solder . Then later on in the poem he get more closer to him and starts to describe his amosins and even get the reader in the emotion like if you were the solder .
13 errors corrected

Summary Non-word errors remaining Real-word errors remaining Errors corrected Word 2007 4 7 7 IE Spell 4 7 7 Google Toolbar 5 7 6 VeritySpell 1 5 13 Ginger 1 4 14 Read & Write 1 5 13

Conclusions
Online working is a reality but learners don’t adopt the same proofing strategies as off line working
There are many spell-checking tools that can be used with online work
But their usability and accuracy vary
Who knows of their existence?
Contextual correction has arrived
REMEMBER – keep it simple & personal

Personalisation
Will this do for all of you? Showing one size t-shirt
No that won’t fit me
We are all unique with individual needs and requirements

Useful Links
LexDis Project website: www.lexdis.org
James and Draffan (2004):
www.dyslexic.com/accuracy

Contact Details
E.A. Draffan
Learning Societies Lab, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton. Mobile 07976 289103 E-mail: [email_address]
Abi James
Iansyst Ltd
Cambridge
01223 420101
E-mail:
[email_address]
www.dyslexic.com

http://access.ecs.soton.ac.uk	694
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	18

Spell checking when working online.

by E.A. Draffan on Jan 27, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 712

Statistics

Spell checking when working online. — Presentation Transcript