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Why, How, and For Whom We Need to
Use Talking Word Processors
William Peet, Ph.D.
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Synopsis: Research has shown novice writers of
all abilities teach themselves basic writing skills as they learn
to communicate in print using talking word processors.
1. Introduction: Why Use a Talking Word Processor?
Learning basic reading and writing skills with a talking word
processor is a revolutionary process that was not possible before
the mid-1980s, when Dr. Laura Meyers, Dr. Teresa Rosegrant and I
(working with our publishers) invented, tested then marketed our
Apple II and IBM-PC talking word processors.
It was only a couple of years earlier that easy basic-level word
processing had become available through the Bank Street Writer
from Broderbund and Magic Slate from Sunburst/Wings for Learning.
Many of us now take for granted that children will be able to use
word processing during their K-12 schooling process to enhance
their reading and writing skills learning process. But too many
educators are still unaware that talking word processors add a
markedly different ingredient to that learning process - the
power to experiment auditorily with the formation of the written
language.
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1.1. The difference between talking and
non-talking word processors
While a non-talking word processor gives a child the ability to
increase writing skills through its great ease of editing, versus
typewriters or pen/pencil tools, editing is a higher level skill
than basic word construction. To get the greatest benefit from
using a non-talking word processor, the learner must already know
something about the written language: how words are spelled and
how sentences are put together. Therefore non-talking word
processors are most often used by students in the upper
elementary grades, as a way to make their writing products neater
in appearance and clearer in message.
The talking word processor, on the other hand, allows learners to
construct words from scratch, so to speak. The learner types a
letter and the computer not only places the letter on the
computer screen, but says the letter out loud. When several
letters are typed together and the spacebar is pushed, the
computer tries to turn that sequence of letters into a word. A
learner can experiment with the written language with such a
tool. It is possible for individuals to create their own unique
intrinsic understanding of the system of the written language
through such experimentation.
Auditorily 'constructing words from scratch' with a talking word
processor is an excellent example of a learning process referred
to by some researchers as "informal learning,"
(educators Charles Wedemeyer, et. al.), by others as
"self-discovered learning" (psychologist Carl Rogers's
term), and in my work since 1983 as "interest-driven
learning." Through the continued experimentation with word
formation using an appropriate talking word processor, very young
children can continue the natural acquisition of their native
language without interruption, moving under their own intitiative
first through comprehension, then production of the spoken
language, and then, without even stopping to think about what
they are doing or being directly taught in any set curriculum,
right into writing and reading the words and sentences of
their spoken language.
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1.2. Revolutionary Process - The Current Research
Record
Experimentation with the written word using a talking word
processor is a truly revolutionary process for the novice
reader/writer. The experimentation process it makes possible
distinguishes the talking word processor in kind from any other
writing tool. Not just a word processor, its bridge between
speech and print provides an arena for self-directed and concrete
learning of written language -- a language system considered by
Piaget to be abstract, to be learnable only through direct
teaching.
Dr. Laura Meyers, who invented the first simple talking word
processor to use in her research on the aural and written
language development of children with Down Syndrome, states it
clearly: "...the keys to effective computer use by children
with language disabilities are to implement the computer both as
an access tool and as a personal meaning tool; that is, to use
the technology to provide access to speech and text, link it to
their personal meaning systems, and thereby allow them to
participate in the natural processes of language learning."
(Meyers, 1994, p. 272)
Dr. Teresa Rosegrant, who invented a talking word processor to
use in her work with children with learning disabilities,
describes: "...a research project in its fourth year which
has attempted to use the microcomputer as a means of supporting
learning disabled children in their efforts to acquire the basic
skills of reading and writing....The twelve students observed
ranged from 6 to 10 years in age. All were 'behind' in reading by
several grade levels. A look at what they could read aloud
indicated none were reading at a first grade level...."
However, after working with Rosegrant's "talking
textwriter," all of the children improved markedly:
"During the six months of this project, all twelve of the
children showed substantial progress in their reading and writing
strategies....their writing had improved in terms of length, word
choice, punctuation, and the use of more complex meaning units.
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Their reading sub-skills improved in terms of phonics and
phonetics as strategies for decoding unfamiliar words. They also
showed considerable gains in the numbers of sight vocabulary
words that they could readily read. Overall, each child improved
at least one year in reading level." Rosegrant attributes
their progress to several aspects of the microcomputer learning
arena, especially interesting to me being "the use of the
microcomputer to provide visual, auditory, and motoric modes of
support for learning disabled students....The support involved in
the use of the speech synthesizer as it provides information
about letter names, letter combinations, words, and how strings
of words sound is the most significant form of help during early
stages of literacy skill development." (Rosegrant, 1985, pp.
113-4)
Working with colleagues at the University of Hawaii Curriculum
Research and Development Group, I tested the potential of merging
the best whole language approaches (writing and reading power
words, brainstorming experience stories, invented spelling, etc.)
with the talking word processor as the writing tool for the
beginning writer/readers - the kindergarteners. We worked with 10
kindergarten children in one big class with 10 first and 10
second graders. Their teacher, Carol Brennan, had a regular
routine of developing interesting content through in-class
activities with bunnies, fish, etc., then brainstorming,
mind-mapping and eventually writing the stories with the
children. She used flip charts to write the stories and some of
the older children participated in entering the stories on the
non-talking word processor, Magic Slate 20 column for the first
grade and LogoWriter for the second. But she had not had her
kindergarteners writing up to the '87-'88 school year. She
decided she wanted them to try using our Dr. Peet's TalkWriter,
and agreed to help me do pre/post-testing of their written
language skills.
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We had each child identify five letters chosen at random, three
times, first by pointing to the letters on the big ABC chart as
Carol read them, second by saying five letter names out loud as
Carol grabbed them from her jumbled letter box, and third by
writing the five randomly chosen letters as Carol said them. Two
of the children had a harder time with this task than the other
eight. We decided to focus our videotaping sessions on these two,
for the best chance at clearly recognizable growth.
All children had at least six directed sessions over the first
semester (September-December), but several chose to use the
talking word processor in their free time as well. Dawn made
friends with the talking computer. Jeff was less thrilled, but we
did see great gains in his ability to handle the written
language. They were the two who had some trouble with the letter
identification in the pre-test. But by post-test time in
December, all of the children could easily identify all of the
letters. We needed to do something else to document their
progress. I decided we would time them writing a simple "I
like ___." sentence, then compare the time it took them to
enter the sentences with the time it took their first grade
counterparts. We did a 'post-test' on both classes, asking each
child to write one sentence with a known power word, e.g.
"candy." and one with a new power word, e.g.
"tyrannosaurus rex." We found that the first graders
were just a little faster, averaging one minute per sentence to
the kindergarteners two minutes. The astounding aspect of the
research was the ability of the kindergarten children to find all
the letters they needed to write both the familiar power words
and the new ones they brainstormed with Carol on the spot. We
have a great video clip of Carol working the power word out of
Jeff, then grabbing the dictionary and getting him to read out
the letters with her as she wrote them down on his power word
card for him to enter into the "I like __." frame. He
had to have that "tyrannosaurus rex!" He captured that
monster with his talking word processor, taking about 1.5 minutes
to find all of those letters, with absolutely no prompting from
Carol. On the way, he had to stop to re-write the first 'n' in
"tyrannosaurus." He entered it first as a 'u' but
edited it immediately without prompting after hearing the
computer say the wrong letter out loud. Jeff is one of the
children who just NEEDED that auditory feedback.
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2. Who Needs a Talking Word
Processor?
This section is short and sweet, because in Meyers' words:
"Further research is also needed to determine which other
populations of children with language disabilities could benefit
from the access methods used in this study...." Her access
methods were similar to those used by Rosegrant with her children
with learning disabilities, and to the methods Carol and I used
with the children in Hawaii. There is one common thread between
all of these children, however, which I believe may define the
target users of the talking word processor most accurately: All
were novice reader/writers. Meyers' children were also novice
speakers of English, Rosegrant's had had some exposure to
standard reading and writing curricula, but had not had success,
attested by their less than first grade reading levels. Jeff and
Dawn were novices simply because they were first semester
kindergarteners, members of a group that seldom gets more than
minimal introduction to the written word.
I would like to suggest extrapolation beyond these groups to ANY
speaker of English who is not a reader or writer of English. This
expands the target user group to non-literate prison inmates and
seniors in our high schools who are about to be graduated,
whether they can read or not, just to move them along. I will
personally be doing everything I can to make this technology
available to every novice reader/writer. My experience over the
past ten years, since we first started using the simple, one-line
WRITE WORDS module of my prototype ABC Discovery, is that a very
large percentage (perhaps 70-80%) of novice reader/writers is
intrigued with and can find a large number of personal reasons to
write with a talking word processor. Rosegrant's conclusions bear
repeating here: "The support involved in the use of the
speech synthesizer as it provides information about letter names,
letter combinations, words, and how strings of words sound is the
most significant form of help during early stages of literacy
skill development." This is true for any novice
reader/writer. It just makes sense.
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3. How to Teach with a Talking Word Processor
This is in some ways the hardest section of the paper for me to
write, and in other ways the easiest. It is hard because I have
never personally done it, though I worked very closely with Carol
Brennan and her Hawaii kindergarten in her modification of the
curriculum I suggest in the teacher's guide to Dr. Peet's
TalkWriter. It is easy because every activity suggested in the
best whole language processes can be used to great benefit when
the novice writers are using a talking word processor as their
writing tool. This is especially true for the process called
"invented spelling" or "invented writing."
When you invent words with a talking word processor, you get
immediate aural feedback for every step of your experimentation
process, under your own control, without asking teacher. I met a
five year old who had much experience inventing spellings for his
power words. I asked him what his favorite animal was and he
immediately started typing "h r s." No need for power
cards here, thanks to his great teacher and her support for his
invention. But the computer did not say "horse." It
said "h r s." He looked at me. I looked at him. I said
"Do you want to try something?" We stuck one vowel
after another in between the "h" and the "r"
until we got "hors," which sounds like a
"bad" word he didn't even know when the Echo
synthesizer says it. Just for the heck of it, I suggested we add
an "e" at the end. Then it said "horse"
clearly and unequivocally. Though this little episode
demonstrates the power of the talking word processor in the
invention of words, it is not a perfect tool. The boy had me on
his second favorite animal: "l f n." It was perfectly
recognizable as the large pachyderm. I did not try to expand that
one because it sounded good. The process there would be to read
to him from Dumbo, Babar and Horton until he just had to take
that long word to his talking word processor and type it in
letter by letter: "e l e p h a n t," press the spacebar
and hear a perfect rendition of his second favorite animal.
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When you add either the prediction power of software like
Co-Writer (Don Johnston, Inc. 800 999-4660), or the talking
spell-checker power of talking word processors like Write
Outloud! (Don Johnston) or Dr. Peet's TalkWriter, Macintosh
version ( by Hartley Courseware, order from Dr. Peet's Software,
800 245-5733), you add another level of auditory support for your
personal, self-directed exploration of the written form of your
most powerful spoken power words.
But there are novice writers with spatial, musical, and
story-telling skills and interests who will be strongly supported
by other talking word processing software with drawing tools
(Kidworks II (Davidson 800 545-7677), etc.), musical support for
letter exploration and initial writing efforts (ABC Discovery in
Dr. Peet's TalkWriter, Kidstime(Great Wave 408 438-1990) etc.),
and story construction (Storybook Maker(Hartley),
WiggleWorks(Scholastic 800 541-5513), etc.). Again, the process
is the same: good whole language approaches, building writing and
reading experiences from the child Culture, spoken Language,
Interests, Experiences, personal Nature, and Thinking skills of
each novice writer. I like to think of this as starting with the
CLIENT (note caps in sentence above) of each learner.
Carol Brennan used good whole language process with her
kindergarteners. She had each child first tell her, then write
their power words. She helped them build a nice ring full of
words by the end of the year, which they re-used in various
writing efforts when they went beyond the power word stage. Carol
also adapted my "BEEP Story" to her "W Story"
and had every child write their own "Wizard Story" or
"Wholphin Story," with every blank space filled in by
the child with "w" words, brainstormed with Carol and
added to their power word rings. The children had a great sense
of support in their personal exploration of the relationship
between their favorite spoken words and the written forms of
those words, through their brief experiences with the talking
word processor.
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There were ten computers in Carol's classroom, enough so each K,
1, or 2 child could have their own computer during their class's
computer time, but only one computer had the necessary Echo
computer. This is no longer a problem for classes with Macintosh
computers and talking word processors that use the
software-driven Macintalk text-to-speech. Every computer can be a
talking word processor. It looks like we are at a watershed, and
none too soon!
References
Meyers, Laura. 1994. "Access and Meaning: The Keys to
Effective Computer Use by Children with Language
Disabilities." Journal of Special Education Technology. V.
12, 3, 256-75
Rosegrant, Teresa 1985. "Using the Microcomputer as a Tool
for Learning to Read and Write." Journal of Learning
Disabilities. V. 18, 2, 113-5
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