In light of regression in spelling due to pervasive text and instant messaging, it's probably best to 'fight technology with technology' – that is, to utilize a computer spelling program that would likewise fascinate children.
But among all the software made available to us, which of them should you choose?
First off, the spellchecker feature of some common word processing software is seen by educators as both advantageous and disadvantageous.
Spellcheckers certainly catch a lot of orthographic errors in documents but at the same time develops "technocomplacency", wherein a problematic confidence is engendered (Doku, 2006). We have all experienced how spellcheckers can 'accept' words that are correctly spelled but are used in the wrong context.
Without a dependable computer spelling program, children learn to depend on the imperfect spellchecker and turn in work that has been clumsily proofread.
According to Jupp (2004), spellcheckers on computers:
- 'could be to blame for some poor spelling that we see...people get comfortable about the fact that they don't need to be 100% sure about the spelling of a particular word because the spell-check will pick it up.'
A step up from depending on the ubiquitous spellchecker is 'taking the matter into your own hands', so to speak – you can create a folder on your computer, and name it 'Spelling Lessons' or something similar.
Whenever the spellchecker alerts you to a word you have just misspelled, copy the correct spelling of that word and save it in a Word file in that folder. When done regularly, the proper spellings eventually become imprinted in the mind (Reimold, 2003).
However, because spellcheckers or some other free computer spelling program can't save you from commonly confused words, Reimold (2003) further suggests that you build your own list of word pairs that are most commonly confused with each other, such as 'complement/compliment' and 'discreet/discrete'.
To save precious time, though, you could avail of a computer spelling program that would do most of the work for you, such as the popular Ultimate Spelling software.
Among Ultimate Spelling's most useful features are: it provides the user with up to 6 usages for a particular word, and audio pronunciations for more than 20,000 words – a feature you can't find on most online dictionaries.
Once the user masters a certain word list, he or she can proceed to the next one with the Ultimate Spelling software, and doing so enables them to 'focus on more sophisticated words and concepts...to find words that are relevant or interesting to them...and to have more autonomy in their learning process' (Johnson, 1997).
When choosing a computer spelling program for yourself or for your child, regardless of spelling ability, flexibility of the software is key.
References:
Doku, I 2006, ' Technocomplacency: the spellchecker and learning', Academic Exchange Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 1.
Johnson, A P 1997, 'Word class: A way to modify spelling instruction for gifted learners', Roeper Review, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 128 – 131.
Jupp, A 2004. Words of doubt at standard of our spelling. Evening Chronicle. [internet] 3 September. Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/121568233.html [Accessed 4 July 2010].
Reimold, P 2003, Tips for making writing easier; part 9: improving your spelling, The Free Library, viewed 7 June 2010,