diff --git a/error/index.php b/error/index.php
index 0e57570747d..6798a48f475 100644
--- a/error/index.php
+++ b/error/index.php
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@
 ?>
         <p><?php echo get_string('pleasereport', 'error'); ?>
         <p><form action="<?php echo $CFG->wwwroot ?>/error/index.php" method="post">
-           <textarea rows="3" cols="50" name="text" id="text"></textarea><br />
+           <textarea rows="3" cols="50" name="text" id="text" spellcheck="true"></textarea><br />
            <input type="hidden" name="referer" value="<?php p($httpreferer) ?>">
            <input type="hidden" name="requested" value="<?php p($requesturi) ?>">
            <input type="submit" value="<?php echo get_string('sendmessage', 'error'); ?>">
diff --git a/lib/adminlib.php b/lib/adminlib.php
index 3156374c2df..71c244ce055 100644
--- a/lib/adminlib.php
+++ b/lib/adminlib.php
@@ -1920,7 +1920,7 @@ class admin_setting_configtextarea extends admin_setting_configtext {
         }
 
         return format_admin_setting($this, $this->visiblename,
-        '<div class="form-textarea" ><textarea rows="'. $this->rows .'" cols="'. $this->cols .'" id="'. $this->get_id() .'" name="'. $this->get_full_name() .'">'. s($data) .'</textarea></div>',
+        '<div class="form-textarea" ><textarea rows="'. $this->rows .'" cols="'. $this->cols .'" id="'. $this->get_id() .'" name="'. $this->get_full_name() .'" spellcheck="true">'. s($data) .'</textarea></div>',
         $this->description, true, '', $defaultinfo, $query);
     }
 }
@@ -1966,7 +1966,7 @@ class admin_setting_confightmleditor extends admin_setting_configtext {
         $editor->use_editor($this->get_id(), array('noclean'=>true));
 
         return format_admin_setting($this, $this->visiblename,
-        '<div class="form-textarea"><textarea rows="'. $this->rows .'" cols="'. $this->cols .'" id="'. $this->get_id() .'" name="'. $this->get_full_name() .'">'. s($data) .'</textarea></div>',
+        '<div class="form-textarea"><textarea rows="'. $this->rows .'" cols="'. $this->cols .'" id="'. $this->get_id() .'" name="'. $this->get_full_name() .'" spellcheck="true">'. s($data) .'</textarea></div>',
         $this->description, true, '', $defaultinfo, $query);
     }
 }
diff --git a/lib/deprecatedlib.php b/lib/deprecatedlib.php
index 8022c44df6f..7a94b59effc 100644
--- a/lib/deprecatedlib.php
+++ b/lib/deprecatedlib.php
@@ -1909,7 +1909,7 @@ function print_textarea($usehtmleditor, $rows, $cols, $width, $height, $name, $v
         $editorclass = '';
     }
 
-    $str .= "\n".'<textarea class="form-textarea" id="'. $id .'" name="'. $name .'" rows="'. $rows .'" cols="'. $cols .'">'."\n";
+    $str .= "\n".'<textarea class="form-textarea" id="'. $id .'" name="'. $name .'" rows="'. $rows .'" cols="'. $cols .'" spellcheck="true">'."\n";
     if ($usehtmleditor) {
         $str .= htmlspecialchars($value); // needed for editing of cleaned text!
     } else {
diff --git a/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lang/en/tinymce_spellchecker.php b/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lang/en/tinymce_spellchecker.php
index 117ac455624..ca651ea26cd 100644
--- a/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lang/en/tinymce_spellchecker.php
+++ b/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lang/en/tinymce_spellchecker.php
@@ -22,6 +22,6 @@
  * @license   http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
  */
 
-$string['pluginname'] = 'Check spelling';
+$string['pluginname'] = 'Legacy spell checker';
 
 /* This plugin abuses strings from the standard TinyMCE spellchecker plugin, there is no need to duplicate them here. */
diff --git a/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lib.php b/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lib.php
index b4f51180013..3f856656693 100644
--- a/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lib.php
+++ b/lib/editor/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/lib.php
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ class tinymce_spellchecker extends editor_tinymce_plugin {
             array $options = null) {
         global $CFG;
 
+        if (!$this->is_legacy_browser()) {
+            return;
+        }
+
         // Check at least one language is supported.
         $spelllanguagelist = $this->get_config('spelllanguagelist', '');
         if ($spelllanguagelist !== '') {
@@ -48,4 +52,13 @@ class tinymce_spellchecker extends editor_tinymce_plugin {
             $params['spellchecker_languages'] = $spelllanguagelist;
         }
     }
+
+    protected function is_legacy_browser() {
+        // IE8 and IE9 are the only supported browsers that do not have spellchecker.
+        if (check_browser_version('MSIE', 5) and !check_browser_version('MSIE', 10)) {
+            return true;
+        }
+        // The rest of browsers supports spellchecking or is horribly outdated and we do not care...
+        return false;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/lib/form/editor.php b/lib/form/editor.php
index e3e23aa0561..f2003d2af0b 100644
--- a/lib/form/editor.php
+++ b/lib/form/editor.php
@@ -383,7 +383,7 @@ class MoodleQuickForm_editor extends HTML_QuickForm_element {
         if (!is_null($this->getAttribute('onblur')) && !is_null($this->getAttribute('onchange'))) {
             $editorrules = ' onblur="'.htmlspecialchars($this->getAttribute('onblur')).'" onchange="'.htmlspecialchars($this->getAttribute('onchange')).'"';
         }
-        $str .= '<div><textarea id="'.$id.'" name="'.$elname.'[text]" rows="'.$rows.'" cols="'.$cols.'"';
+        $str .= '<div><textarea id="'.$id.'" name="'.$elname.'[text]" rows="'.$rows.'" cols="'.$cols.'" spellcheck="true"';
         $classes = array();
         if (isset($this->_options['collapsed']) && $this->_options['collapsed']) {
             $this->_options['collapsible'] = 1;
diff --git a/mod/assignment/lib.php b/mod/assignment/lib.php
index 7bd8064743a..8ea3937027f 100644
--- a/mod/assignment/lib.php
+++ b/mod/assignment/lib.php
@@ -1521,7 +1521,7 @@ class assignment_base {
                             } else if ($quickgrade) {
                                 $comment = '<div id="com'.$auser->id.'">'
                                          . '<textarea tabindex="'.$tabindex++.'" name="submissioncomment['.$auser->id.']" id="submissioncomment'
-                                         . $auser->id.'" rows="2" cols="20">'.($auser->submissioncomment).'</textarea></div>';
+                                         . $auser->id.'" rows="2" cols="20" spellcheck="true">'.($auser->submissioncomment).'</textarea></div>';
                             } else {
                                 $comment = '<div id="com'.$auser->id.'">'.shorten_text(strip_tags($auser->submissioncomment),15).'</div>';
                             }
@@ -1549,7 +1549,7 @@ class assignment_base {
                             } else if ($quickgrade) {
                                 $comment = '<div id="com'.$auser->id.'">'
                                          . '<textarea tabindex="'.$tabindex++.'" name="submissioncomment['.$auser->id.']" id="submissioncomment'
-                                         . $auser->id.'" rows="2" cols="20">'.($auser->submissioncomment).'</textarea></div>';
+                                         . $auser->id.'" rows="2" cols="20" spellcheck="true">'.($auser->submissioncomment).'</textarea></div>';
                             } else {
                                 $comment = '<div id="com'.$auser->id.'">&nbsp;</div>';
                             }
diff --git a/mod/data/field/textarea/field.class.php b/mod/data/field/textarea/field.class.php
index 847bae1a6bd..3fc7a711f07 100644
--- a/mod/data/field/textarea/field.class.php
+++ b/mod/data/field/textarea/field.class.php
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ class data_field_textarea extends data_field_base {
         }
         $editor->use_editor($field, $options, $fpoptions);
         $str .= '<input type="hidden" name="'.$field.'_itemid" value="'.$draftitemid.'" />';
-        $str .= '<div><textarea id="'.$field.'" name="'.$field.'" rows="'.$this->field->param3.'" cols="'.$this->field->param2.'">'.s($text).'</textarea></div>';
+        $str .= '<div><textarea id="'.$field.'" name="'.$field.'" rows="'.$this->field->param3.'" cols="'.$this->field->param2.'" spellcheck="true">'.s($text).'</textarea></div>';
         $str .= '<div><label class="accesshide" for="' . $field . '_content1">' . get_string('format') . '</label>';
         $str .= '<select id="' . $field . '_content1" name="'.$field.'_content1">';
         foreach ($formats as $key=>$desc) {
diff --git a/user/addnote.php b/user/addnote.php
index a39a17d4958..75f06ab113d 100644
--- a/user/addnote.php
+++ b/user/addnote.php
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ foreach ($users as $k => $v) {
     $checkbox .= html_writer::select($state_names, 'states[' . $k . ']', empty($states[$k]) ? NOTES_STATE_PUBLIC : $states[$k], false, array('id' => 'menustates'));
     $table->data[] = array(
         '<input type="hidden" name="userid['.$k.']" value="'.$v.'" />'. fullname($user, true),
-        '<textarea name="contents['. $k . ']" rows="2" cols="40">' . strip_tags(@$contents[$k]) . '</textarea>',
+        '<textarea name="contents['. $k . ']" rows="2" cols="40" spellcheck="true">' . strip_tags(@$contents[$k]) . '</textarea>',
         $checkbox
     );
 }
diff --git a/user/groupaddnote.php b/user/groupaddnote.php
index 69fdfb11348..3d63e65f36f 100644
--- a/user/groupaddnote.php
+++ b/user/groupaddnote.php
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ echo get_string('users'). ': ' . implode(', ', $userlist) . '.';
 echo '</p>';
 
 echo '<p>' . get_string('content', 'notes');
-echo '<br /><textarea name="content" rows="5" cols="50">' . strip_tags(@$content) . '</textarea></p>';
+echo '<br /><textarea name="content" rows="5" cols="50" spellcheck="true">' . strip_tags(@$content) . '</textarea></p>';
 
 echo '<p>';
 echo html_writer::label(get_string('publishstate', 'notes'), 'menustate');