In Slovenian schools, Slovenian is the first or native language for most students. It is a fundamental general education subject, consisting of a literary and linguistic component, with objectives defined in the Slovenian language curriculum. The primary goals of language instruction are to develop linguistic, national, and civic awareness and to enhance student/ communicative competence, which includes naming, syntactic, orthographic, and pronunciation skills. However, the tasks designed to enhance linguistic competence often present challenges for students.
Since students frequently make errors in writing proper names, despite learning these orthographic rules from the first grade onward, I was interested in examining how accurately 5th and 9th grade students write proper names and whether they are familiar with the relevant orthographic rules. Furthermore, I sought to explore teachers' perspectives in students' knowledge in this area. It is essential for primary school teachers to recognize how their guidance and support can contribute to students' correct application of orthographic rules in everyday writing.
Through my master's thesis, I aimed to assess how well students have developed linguistic competence regarding the orthographic rules for multi-word proper names, as well as to examine teachers' opinions on their knowledge. I consider it crucial for primary school teachers to be aware of the importance of mastering and reinforcing orthographic rules and ensuring their correct application in writing.
My research focused on 5th and 9th grade students' knowledge of capitalization in multi-word proper names, as well as on Slovenian language teachers' perceptions of students' proficiency in this area.
In the theoretical section, I defined communicative competence as a key objective if language instruction, outlined the content of the Slovenian language curriculum and discussed the role of educational materials in teaching. Additionally, I examined the role of teachers in fostering students' orthographic competence. Furthermore, I presented the relevant rules from The Slovenian Orthographic Guide (Slovenski pravopis) concerning the use of capital and lowercase letters in writing proper names.
In the empirical section, I presented the results of my research, which was conducted in two parts. In the first part, 50 fifth-grade and 50 ninth-grade students completed a knowledge test on writing multi-word proper names. In the second part, I conducted a survey involving 100 Slovenian language teachers who teach 5th or 9th grade. These teachers completed a questionnaire in which they provided their opinions on students' knowledge and their correct use of capitalization in multi-word proper names.
The analysis if the students' knowledge test revealed that fifth-grade students more frequently used appropriate capitalization in multi-word proper names that ninth-grade students. Additionally, the findings indicated that knowledge and application of orthographic rules are closely related to success in the Slovenian language subject for both fifth- and ninth-grade students. The results also shows that girls in both grades have a better understanding of capitalization rules for multi-word proper names than boys, regardless of the type of proper name. The knowledge test results revealed that both fifth- and ninth-grade students struggled the most with long and less familiar proper names.
The analysis of the teacher survey revealed that most teachers believe students are familiar with the orthographic rules for writing multi-word proper names. The majority also agreed that students are more proficient incorrectly capitalizing multi-word settlement names compared to non-settlement geographical names. However, according to teachers, students perform slightly worse when writing multi-word object proper names. Teachers also agreed that overall grades in Slovenian are linked to students' knowledge of capitalization rules. However, they did not associate capitalization skills with gender differences. Nearly half of the teachers believed that students struggle more with capitalizating non-initial words in multi-word proper names that with initial words. They also noted that students tend to have more difficulties applying capitalization rules when writing independent texts.
Based on the findings of my research and the theoretical framework, I developed guidelines for teachers to encourage the appropriate use of capitalization in multi-word proper names. These guidelines include using problem-based tasks, integrating orthographic rules with other language activities, incorporating cultural and social contexts into language learning, and encouraging students to actively recognize and apply these rules in various context. By doing so, we can help students reinforce their knowledge and understanding of capitalization rules, ultimately improving their linguistic competence in the long term.
|
