My journey through Text Technologies: The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing
Nataliia Kudryk used Microsoft voice to text as her selected tool, just as I did. Nataliia mentioned that she was getting distracted and frustrated by the errors showing up on her screen. When I dictated my story, I chose to not look at the screen while I was dictating, because I knew I’d have the urge to correct mistakes as well!
It was interesting reading her discussion about native and non-native speakers and how her “organs of speech have not been trained to speak English,” resulting in errors in dictation. This made me think about how English Language Learners use assistive technology, and if the benefits outweigh the difficulties. This lead me to a study discussing the use of word prediction software with bilingual learners in early childhood. Throughout the process, students increased their confidence in reading and writing, expanded their vocabulary and responses, and developed various new literacies (Brown & Allmond, 2021). This software should not be seen as something that encourages kids to cheat; instead it should be looked at as a tool to enhance their learning and development.
References
Brown, S.,& Allmond, A. (2021). Emergent bilinguals’ use of word prediction software Amid Digital Composing. The Reading Teacher, 74(5), 607-616. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1988