If that curve rises very steeply, then the word is a good “discriminator”: it’s an accurate way to separate the good spellers from the bad spellers. That way the Bee can quickly zero in on a player’s skill level, in much the same way that computer-adaptive tests like the GRE and GMAT tailor themselves to test-takers’ abilities.įor each word, a graph is generated to plot the distribution of right and wrong answers across different skill levels.
Using intricate algorithms and curve-fitting models, the Bee is able to determine not just how difficult a word is to spell, but how well a word is at discriminating good spellers from bad spellers. There’s some sophisticated data analysis going on behind the scenes to score both players and words. A 200-level speller will get quizzed on the easiest words, but 800-level spellers are in for a fiendish challenge - matching their wits against such oddities as puerperal (relating to childbirth), faineant (disinclined to work or exertion), and palilalia (a pathological condition in which a word is rapidly and involuntarily repeated - something you might get from trying to spell too many words!). As the player continues to spell, the quiz narrows in on his or her score, on a scale from 200 to 800. That means there’s an increasingly better fit to different skill levels. Every five minutes, words are rescored for difficulty taking into account the latest data from the Bee spellers. Words are being continuously reanalyzed for difficulty based on how spellers fare. That way a player will always be quizzed at the appropriate skill level - from the orthographically challenged to the most expert spellers.Īs more and more players try the Bee, the game has steadily improved based on data collected on how words are spelled. And conversely, if you’re not a great speller, the words will get easier and easier. The reason why it’s so addictive is that it’s been designed to be adaptive, so the more words that are spelled correctly, the more difficult the words become.
It’s clearly habit-forming, with many repeat visitors. So far there have been 15,000 players who have tried their hand at spelling a grand total of 500,000 words. When we launched the Visual Thesaurus Spelling Bee this past summer, we knew there was a built-in interest, but the response was still surprising. Even Great Britain is belatedly joining in the fun, with the (UK) Times currently sponsoring the first-ever national Spelling Bee. Since Webster’s time, the spelling bee has become a distinctly American tradition, with its lasting appeal showcased in movies like Akeelah and the Bee and Spellbound, and the widely watched national broadcast of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on ABC and ESPN. It tells us a lot about how people grapple with the confusing rules of English spelling.Īmerican schoolchildren have been competing in spelling bees for about two centuries now, originally sparked by the spelling textbooks of Noah Webster, whose 250th birthday was celebrated by American lexiphiles two weeks ago. One fun example of this fusion is a new online spelling bee that adapts to players’ skill levels. In my new job, I still get the chance to fuse lexicography with state-of-the-art technology. The development of the Oxford English Corpus has been particularly useful in tracking English usage, illuminating everything from spelling errors to shifting idioms to innovative combining forms like – licious. When I was writing the column “ From A to Zimmer” here, I often talked about how the OUP dictionary program uses the latest computational tools to shed new light on the inner workings of the English language. Greetings, OUPblog readers! It’s been about six months since I had my “ Last Word” around these parts, and it’s good to be back, reporting in from my new vantage point as executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus.
0 kommentar(er)
