Analysis of Misspellings in German Orthography in Grade 3 to 6

Konstanze Edtstadler, Markus Ebner, Martin Ebner, Michael Gros, Nina Steinhauer, Sabine Peifer, Jessica Gregori, Elisabeth Herunter, Anneliese Huppertz, Vera Kistemann

Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterpeer-review

Abstract

When children are struggling with the acquisition of German orthography, they are often told to practice more in general or especially striking orthographic areas are trained, e.g. case sensitivity. Instead of this intuitive approach, it is necessary to establish an evidence-based approach by conducting a reliable qualitative analysis for individuals as well as possessing comprehensive knowledge of the frequency of correct and incorrect spellings within specific
orthographic areas across a large and representative dataset. This target is pursued by applying Learning-Analytic-Methods for the first time in German orthography. Therefore, in the Erasmus+ project Iderblog (www.iderblog.eu) an intelligent dictionary was developed and integrated in a web-based text editor. When children use this editor, correct spellings and misspellings are tracked (independent of personal data), and the misspellings are assigned to specific orthographic categories. Consequently, it is possible to gain a deeper and objective insight to the spelling performance on different linguistic levels, ranging from the number of correct of incorrect spellings of the (already) categorized words to the relation of observed and expected frequencies within 28 different orthographic categories. Currently, this research is based on more than 4 000 texts written by German-speaking 3rd to 6th graders. The oral
presentation aims to present some remarkable results, e.g. that only around one-tenth of the words are spelled incorrectly using lower case letter instead of upper case letter. In addition to the presentation of selected results and the discussion of their impact on didactic approaches, the architecture of the intelligent dictionary will be explained language independent.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 20 Oct 2018
EventEuropean Dyslexia Autumn Seminar - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, München, Germany
Duration: 19 Oct 201821 Oct 2018

Seminar

SeminarEuropean Dyslexia Autumn Seminar
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityMünchen
Period19/10/1821/10/18

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