Wednesday 04 September 2002
Many parents feel their children are more likely to be able to spell words from popular culture than words in general use. Research by MORI, commissioned by the Oxford University Press, found two thirds (68%) of parents of children aged between five — 14 years old thought a typical 10 year old more likely to be able to spell Beckham than favourite, and almost three in five (58%) thought "children are too lazy to use a dictionary when they ought".
Q Which of the following two words do you think a typical 10 year old would MORE likely to able to spell correctly?
| | A | B | Both |
|---|
| | % | % | % |
|---|
| Parliament (A) or Hogwarts (B) | 10 | 73 | 12 |
| Favourite (A) or Beckham (B) | 16 | 68 | 16 |
Technical details
Results from a survey carried out by MORI on behalf of Oxford University Press between 10th and 28th January 2002, with 928 parents of children aged 5-14 interviewed face-to-face at 393 sampling points throughout Great Britain.