The effects of word prediction and text-to-speech on the writing process of translating

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the combination of word prediction and text-to-speech software on the writing process of translating. Participants for this study included 10 elementary and middle school students who had a diagnosis of disorder of written expression. A modified multiple case series was used to collect data over a three-week period. The participants were asked to describe in writing what was happening in a picture-based writing prompt. The participants responded in writing using a word processor software alone in the pretest condition and using a word processor in conjunction with the word prediction, text-to-speech software WordQ in the posttest condition. The results provide support for the use of the word prediction and text-to-speech features in WordQ with students who have a diagnosis of disorder of written expression. The participants’ written work was significant for having fewer spelling errors, increased syntactic maturity as measured by mean T-unit length and fewer overall words produced when using the WordQ software.

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