Frederiksen, Nina

Hammerich, Mie Wiatr

Jeppesen, Karen Holk

Abstract We are often confronted with spelling mistakes in both social and conventional media. But how do we judge spelling mistakes in general and to what degree do other people judge us when we spell words incorrectly? From this perspective, this study seeks to investigate Danish high school student’s covert and overt attitudes towards five selected spelling mistakes. The objective is to compare our results to those of Kristiansen (2013). Furthermore we wish to determine in what way context inflicts on high school student’s perception of spelling mistakes. In relation to this study we have examined 85 high school student’s overt and covert attitudes regarding the five different kinds of spelling mistakes. In the first part of the investigation, we have made use of the matched guise test-technique as a method to determine the student’s covert attitudes. A questionnaire has afterwards been used with the purpose of determining the adolescent’s overt attitudes to spelling mistakes. Due to unforeseen methodical obstacles we have been forced not to include the results from the matched guise test in a comparison with the questionnaire: As it turns out our respondents are too different in their evaluations to draw a valid conclusion regarding their overt attitudes to language which might be caused by the length of the extracts in the matched guise test. The lack of useful results points to a revision of the quantitative matched guise test as a method for examining language attitudes in Danish essays. Results show that the respondents find mistakes in combined words worst among all five spelling mistakes. Declension (“forkert bøjning”) is found to be the type of mistake that the respondents have the least amount of attitude towards. We are to make a direct comparison to Kristiansen (2013) regarding conjugation (“nutids-r”). Therefore it is possible to determine that the students found this type of mistake equally bad whether it is spelled in Danish essays or in a Facebook update. An unexpected result from our study is the massive awareness that the respondents seem to show when it comes to their own posts on Facebook. Even though the students are quite eager to spell correctly in Danish essays, consequences of spelling mistakes on social media are very much on their minds as well.Abstract We are often confronted with spelling mistakes in both social and conventional media. But how do we judge spelling mistakes in general and to what degree do other people judge us when we spell words incorrectly? From this perspective, this study seeks to investigate Danish high school student’s covert and overt attitudes towards five selected spelling mistakes. The objective is to compare our results to those of Kristiansen (2013). Furthermore we wish to determine in what way context inflicts on high school student’s perception of spelling mistakes. In relation to this study we have examined 85 high school student’s overt and covert attitudes regarding the five different kinds of spelling mistakes. In the first part of the investigation, we have made use of the matched guise test-technique as a method to determine the student’s covert attitudes. A questionnaire has afterwards been used with the purpose of determining the adolescent’s overt attitudes to spelling mistakes. Due to unforeseen methodical obstacles we have been forced not to include the results from the matched guise test in a comparison with the questionnaire: As it turns out our respondents are too different in their evaluations to draw a valid conclusion regarding their overt attitudes to language which might be caused by the length of the extracts in the matched guise test. The lack of useful results points to a revision of the quantitative matched guise test as a method for examining language attitudes in Danish essays. Results show that the respondents find mistakes in combined words worst among all five spelling mistakes. Declension (“forkert bøjning”) is found to be the type of mistake that the respondents have the least amount of attitude towards. We are to make a direct comparison to Kristiansen (2013) regarding conjugation (“nutids-r”). Therefore it is possible to determine that the students found this type of mistake equally bad whether it is spelled in Danish essays or in a Facebook update. An unexpected result from our study is the massive awareness that the respondents seem to show when it comes to their own posts on Facebook. Even though the students are quite eager to spell correctly in Danish essays, consequences of spelling mistakes on social media are very much on their minds as well

Stavefejl i (kon)tekst - En undersøgelse af gymnasieelevers sprogholdninger til stavefejl i danske stile og på sociale medier

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Roskilde Universitet