The writing processes and learning strategies of initial users of speech recognition. A case study on the adaptation process of two professional writers

This paper describes the adaptation and learning process of writers who have started using speech recognition systems for writing business texts. To gather the process data for this study we have chosen complementary research methods. First the participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire, then they received instruction in the speech recognition system, they were observed five times using the speech recognition system during their day-to-day work and filled in a logging questionnaire after each task. The data from these sessions were used to describe the adaptation strategies during the learning process by revealing the planning, formulating and reviewing behaviour of the writers. This article focuses on (1) the effect of speech recognition on cognitive processes of writers; (2) the learning strategies of initial users; (3) the description of a research method, categorization model and notation model to answer research questions as extensively as possible. To illustrate the possibilities of the categorization model we describe a case study in which we show the learning and writing process of two experienced dictators. Both writers have a comparable experience in professional writing, word processing and classical dictating. However, they do differ in learning style (cf. Kolb 1984). The case study shows that this difference in learning style is decisive in the adaptation process and because of this it also shows that the used method enabled us to describe these kind of writing process data adequately.