Title: What is Word Prediction?
Course: Accommodations to Support Written Language

a variety of tools

Word prediction is a writing tool that helps with spelling, vocabulary, sentence construction and linguistic subject-verb agreement. Word prediction comes in a variety of forms, sometimes "packaged" in a larger word processing tools. Word prediction is like having a dictionary, vocabulary list, grammar checker and thesaurus working together, alongside the writer AND it's available whenever needed. Using word prediction, students can give their full attention to what they want to write, rather than focusing on what letter comes next. The result is often greatly improved sentence coherence, spelling, and grammar.

As you begin typing, a word list is generated of possible "next" words, based on the letters that are typed. Most common words appear after just one, two or three letters, depending on context and the frequency of use. Adding additional letters, narrows the list until the desired word is displayed.

At its simplest, word-prediction is just “word-completion”; it helps a writer complete a word that has been started. More sophisticated versions enable word prediction based on an individual word AND the language context witinin the sentence being constructed. The sentence structure acts as an additional cue and helps refine the predicted word list.

Other versions of word prediction are able to suggest words based on what the sounds in the word are - it uses phonetic cues. For example, if you type "fiz", words like "physics" will be predicted, as well as "fizzy". Likewise, if you type "wen", words like "when" and "Wednesday", and "went" will be predicted.

In the software CoWriter (Don Johnston), word prediction is active in a variety of media such as word processing, email, power point, etc. Word prediction is able to link to the application and provide spelling and word support wherever needed.

Write OnLine (Crick Software) has the option for a "traveling" prediction window or a stationary position. The prediction window can be docked or undocked to met the needs of the usesr. When the window "travels", it moves along directly below the cursor.

In Write OnLine, the word prediction list is on the right side of the screen. This software program allow for active use of both word prediction and word bank writing.

Word prediction is active and incorporated into this on-screen keyboard (Keystroke). The predicted word are located directly above the number keys and words change based on what is being typed. The program displays the sentence as it is being composed, in the empty space above the predicted words.