Būdingiausios rašybos klaidos mokinių rašiniuose ir tinklaraščiuose

BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ Institute of Lithuanian Language THE MOST COMMON TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS MOKINIŲ RAŠINIUOSE IR TINKLARAŠČIUOSE KEY WORDS: essay, spelling, spelling error, literacy, blog. INTRODUCTION Recently, it has been increasingly reported that the literacy of pupils is deteriorating. There are increasing claims that the ability of pupils to express their thoughts in Lithuanian and, of course, to write without mistakes, is rapidly declining; often this problem is presented as difficult to overcome. The impact of digital technologies on writing (texting, social networks, etc.) is particularly emphasized in various discussions. All this led to the study of pupils’ language1, i.e. one aspect of language analysis – spelling2. The article examines spelling errors found in texts written by students of different genres: in one hundred essays for the 2014 Lithuanian language and literature state exam3 and in one hundred and sixty blog posts written by 15-18-year-olds in 2012-20144. The aim of the article is to identify the most common spelling errors in different genres of texts – students’ essays and blogs, to explain their causes and compare these errors. When examining the spelling of texts of different genres, it is necessary to take into account the circumstances that may determine the causes and tendencies of the errors made. Essays are compulsory for all graduates; it is a maturity exam and the student must perform the task according to the criteria given to him. When writing the work, the student must understand the formulated topic, examine it in his work, refer to the authors indicated, etc. The essay is written by hand, its volume is about 500 words, the language must be correct, the text must be clear. This work is appreciated; the grade received is very important for every student. Thus, when writing student 1 General problems of assessing essays for the Lithuanian language and literature maturity exam and the concept of general language norms in school were described in detail by Rita Miliūnaitė in the article “On the concept of general language norms in school”, which is published in this volume of General Language (Miliūnaitė 2015). 2 Since January 2015. The Institute of Lithuanian Language has established a Group of School Lithuanian Studies, whose researchers, having received permission from the National Examination Centre, are examining the language of the essays for the 2014 state examination in Lithuanian language and literature. 3 The article examines the spelling of randomly selected articles, i.e., neither the gender nor the region of origin of the authors were considered. 4 The average number of words in a blog post is about 300 words (Tamulionienė 2014). Branda’s essay for the exam is about 500 words, so we chose to examine 160 blog posts so that the texts of different genres were examined in the same amount. 2015. pp. 88–89, 2015. pp. 231–232, 2015. pp. 233–234, 2015. pp. 235–236, 2015. pp. 237–238, 2015. pp. 238–239, 2015. Typical spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 2 works may prevent reflecting the pp. 239–240, 2015. pp. 241–242, 2015. pp. 243–244, 2015. pp. 244–245, 2015. pp. 246–247, 2015. pp. 248–250, 2015. turėtų stengtis tą darbą atlikti kaip įmanoma geriau, t. y. parodyti visas tos srities žinias, kurias jis tik turi. Įtakos gali turėti ir psichologiniai veiksniai: įtampa ir stresas rašant baigiamuosius results that the student could show. Blogs are written by the most active students. Each text is created separately, the language of the texts is not edited. Blogs are written voluntarily, žmogaus, atskleidžia jo kalbinius gebėjimus, mąstymą ir pan. Viešai pateikiamų tinklaraščių they are not evaluated. (See Miliūnaitė 2008; Tamulionienė 2014 for the circumstances of blogging.) The first chapter of the article outlines the relevance of the study; Other sections of the article examine the most typical spelling errors in articles and blogs, and provide a comparative statistical characteristic of errors. The article illustrates all cases of errors with examples from articles and blogs. 1. RELEVANCE OF THE INVESTIGATION The spelling rules of the Lithuanian language are binding on all people who write in the common variant of that language. When writing, people communicate in writing, so correct spelling can not only make their communication easier (a text often written with mistakes is difficult to read, and sometimes to understand), but also help to communicate. Writing is “a matter of agreement, the outer shell of language and only indirectly related to the inner structure of language” (Pupkis 2005: 231). Lithuanian spelling is based on three general principles: phonetic, morphological and traditional, the dominant phonetic principle, i.e. we write many words as we hear them pronounced. The concept, essence and principles of Lithuanian spelling are described in detail in various publications dedicated to Lithuanian spelling and punctuation (LKRS: 9–20; LK 1: 289–293; LKE: 521–523; MRKŽ: 3–6; Pupkis 2005: 230–234; Šukys: 268–279). A review of the standardization of Lithuanian spelling has been presented by Liuda Kadžytė-Kuzavinienė (1997: 5–8). More complicated spelling subjects are commented and explained in the textbook of Virginija Vasiliauskienė and Erika Rimkutė (2007). The declining literacy of the public5, often perceived as deteriorating spelling and divorce, has recently been widely publicly written and discussed, with particular attention being paid to the literacy of young people; and the number of studies is increasing. Vaida Drukteinytė (2009) investigated the most typical student spelling errors. Aušra Rimkutė (2012) examined spelling and punctuation errors found in the dictation of first year students of the Faculty of Telšiai of Žemaitijos College. It was determined that they finished school more than 12 years ago, there is a huge difference: the first, writing the dictation, made an average of 22 errors, the second – 9. So literacy deteriorated almost 2.5 times!” (Rimkutė 2012: 12). In 2013–2014, the State Commission for the Lithuanian Language carried out a language evaluation of higher „palyginus 2012 ar 2011 m. vidurinę mokyklą baigusių asmenų diktantus su tų, kurie vidurieducation textbooks, master’s theses and doctoral dissertations summaries. The survey showed a low level of literacy (more about the survey at www.vlkk.lt). In 2014, the magazine “Gimtasis žodis” published the project “(I)literacy – not only a school concern”. Teachers, students and the public are invited to participate in this project. In 2014, the linguist Bronius Dobrovolskis conducted an experiment – he dictated the same dictation 20 years later. Results 5 This article does not go into the concept and concept of literacy. literacy is here only referred to as the ability to write without errors. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. The most typical spelling errors in students’ essays and blogs | 3 showed that the number of errors doubled (for more about the study see Jackevičius 2014). The Institute of Lithuanian Language also conducts research on the language of pupils: spelling, punctuation, syntax, lexicon. The research is focused on the 2014 state Lithuanian language and literature maturity examination, as well as other students’ essays, their evaluation. The first results of the (typographical) investigation are presented in this article6. Rita Miliūnaitė discusses various literacy problems in her articles (2013, 2014 and others). Linguists and teachers write various articles on this topic in the media (interview with R. Miliūnaitė 2010, 2014, 2015; interview with A. Šventickienė 2014). There are also opposing opinions. In her article Loreta Vaicekauskienė discusses the concept of literacy more broadly and believes that literacy is growing at present (Vaicekauskienė 2013). Journalists also write about this topic, and readers are drawn to scandalous headlines about the declining literacy of society, especially young people. Here are just a few examples of headlines: Illiteracy among schoolchildren hunger eyes (Krikštaponytė 2006), Literacy among Lithuanians will be much better: doing nothing is disastrous (2013), Ministry’s tėjęs (2011), Politikai susirūpino menkėjančiu moksleivių raštingumu (2012), Mąžtantis visuomefight against the stupid: Lithuanian language exam for eighth-graders, fewer tests, more reading (2013), Illiteracy becomes a shame for the state (2013), Is an educated person today not necessarily literate? (2014), Explained why so many illiterate (2014), School exam results: Is it time to say goodbye to the illiterate generation? (2015), Assessed teenage writing works: Everything was even worse than expected (2015). The students also express their opinion: Graduate who received zero for the exam: "I don't feel illiterate" (2014). There is a lot of discussion about youth literacy all over the world, research is being carried out on the influence of electronic communication on students’ literacy. In America, for example, teachers are concerned that students’ spelling and punctuation skills are deteriorating, and that non-English-speaking countries are also facing increasing roninei komunikacijai būdingų bruožų (Lenhart ir kt. 2008). Su panašiomis raštingumo probnumbers of spelling errors in texts. For example, Serbs notice a strong influence of English on their spelling. In informal texts, ch is written instead of č, and sh instead of š. The spelling of names is also changed – the English example of writing all words in capital letters is adopted (Anđelković 2014: 21–22). The Latvian press (www.tvnet.lv, www.nra.lv and others) writes about the decline in reading and its influence on deteriorating literacy. These are just a few examples of other countries facing a variety of literacy challenges. The constantly appearing articles on this topic show the importance of the problem and the public need to know the extent of the problem and ways of solving it. First of all, it is necessary to find out what mistakes are most commonly made at the moment, only then it will be possible to make recommendations on how to teach certain language subjects. This article deals with only one aspect of language, spelling errors. The choice of two different genres of texts for the study was not random: it is believed that by evaluating the spelling of different genres of texts it is possible to better clarify the students’ tendency to make some or other spelling errors. 6 For students' syntax errors, see Solvita Labanauskienė’s article “The most important syntax errors in the writings of the graduates of South Aukštaičiai” in this volume of General Language (Labanauskienė 2015). BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 4 2. BŪDINGIAUSIOS RAŠYBOS KLAIDOS MOKINIŲ RAŠINIUOSE IR TINKLARAŠČIUOSE All the texts examined in the article were evaluated in terms of the following spelling aspects: vowels and diphthongs; nasal vowels; consonants; capital letters; writing words together and separately; the writing of diacritics; spelling in the electronic space. The article examines spelling errors in articles and blogs together, comparing their usage tendencies in texts of different genres. 2. 1. Spelling of vowels and diphthongs The spelling of Lithuanian vowels is in many cases phonetic and it would seem that it should be simple – as we hear, so we write, i.e. the spelling of vowels is often related to the correct pronunciation. 2.1.1. In spoken language (both dialects and urban language) the opposition between long and short vowels disappears. There is a lack of detailed research on student pronunciation in Lithuania. Separate studies (Bukantienė 2006) show that long vowels are worst pronounced (and also wrongly written) in unaccented positions. In both types of texts, the spelling of long and short vowels is usually incorrect. Long and short vowels are mostly confused when writing nouns. As can be seen from the examples given, the most common cause of errors is the abbreviation of long vowels when pronounced in an unaccentuated position: (R) <...> When confronted with painful experiences, a large scar remains in the memory.7 In this creation, deep memories can be observed <...>. <...> priverčiantis prisiminti skaudžius įvikius nutikusius praeityje. In my opinion, a great example <...>. <...> pažada apginti nuo neligybės tarp žmonių. <...> Lithuania lost its statehood <...>. (T) And we spent it really funny: we swinged on the swings <...>. <...> the biology teacher either really has no brains at all and doesn't know how to teach children <...>. Let me guess, somewhere in your stomach or belly you feel such a pleasant feeling, accompanied by a smile. <...> Christmas stuff, but near the cash desk we saw a shelf with two sculptures. Spelling errors of long and short vowels were found in verbs and forms made from them: more often students write long vowels instead of short ones. (R) <...> villagers should remember for a long time <...>. <...> in our memories love occupies one of the most important places. 7 The language of the examples presented here and below in the article is uncorrected, the places in question are marked in red, if the accent is important – in bold. Examples from essays are marked with (R) in the article, from blogs with (T). BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. The most typical spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 5 <...> creates a book, which is read generation after generation <...>. <...> in a man alive so quickly will not erase. <...> could not influence the present life <...>. (T) It doesn't matter that it's spring and I'm tired, but I have to work on my studies. Instead of long vowels, they write short ones: (R) Many people gathered around the television tower <...>. <...> without fear of sacrificing his life – he defended his country <...>. (T) Well, it wouldn't be me. I want something new to somehow brighten my life and get rid of the daily routine. Long and short vowel confusion errors, although much less, have also been found in writing other parts of the language. There are errors in both the accentuated and unaccentuated positions. For example, when writing adjectives (R1; T1), as well as adverbs (R2; T2), pronouns (R3; T3): (R1) They are happy, but they ruin the present <...>. <...> unfortunate love or just a bad day. <...> priests are highly regarded and popular. (T1) I would like to say a big thank you to the teacher for two years of work, determination and innovative ideas. But the midday sleep fixed it and the next workout was on Sunday. (R2) They are deeply engraved in our consciousness. But looking deeper, we can clearly see <...>. Do people necessarily have to accept a painful loss? (T2) PHP can be learned to code extremely irregularly, it is also quite vulnerable at the beginner level, and learning various security tricks takes quite a long time. (R3) <...> which makes our everyday life different. <...>the tasks that we humans do not like to do <...>. "Kūrie in mus ripina <...>". (T3) <...> we must do everything that depends on us, and success will only help, it will help when it is needed most. Statistically, as many as 78% of all spelling errors of long and short vowels are found in unpronounced positions; blogs have fewer spelling errors of vowels (see Figure 1), of which 69% were found in unpronounced positions of long vowels. 2.1.2. Another group of errors is the mistakes of confusion of vowels, as well as vowels and diphthongs. Most of them consist of incorrect spelling of the vowels e and ė. In one case, students write ė where e is needed (e.g.: R1; T1), in another case, conversely, – e instead of ė (R2; T2): (R1) The money was for a wheelchair. <...> and sometimes you don't have to think about the consequences. <...> in such a situation the brother would not cope alone <...>. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 6 <...> love is the only thing that can give our everyday life nobility. <...> decides to play the violin in her and Rapolo's refrigerator. Yesterday evening I went with my aunt, uncle and aunt's husband to (T1) Ir bėje, Sveikinu DIMĄ ir SONATĄ su 3 METUKAIS draugystės! Panevezys. (R2) We cultivate it, we use it at all stages of life. The first Soviet exiles<...> <...>forbidden Latin alphabet<...> (T2) If you expect that Lady Luck will come with a plate on which your goals are already achieved and you can just pick them up, nothing like that will ever happen in your life. why did you decide to start ask.fm? There are many mistakes in confounding the vowels e and ė. And here the reason is probably clear – the difference in the pronunciation of the sounds e and ė disappears, then it is difficult to write them properly. Statistical analysis of these data showed that the vowels e and ė were more often found in unpronounced position. Such cases were found in 57% of all investigated errors of this type in writings and 67% in blogs. There are far fewer spelling errors when confusing e–ie, ė–ie spelling, o–uo spelling: (R) Does love give nobility to man's everyday life? <...> there would be no feeling of love for our loved ones <...>. <...> to feel love for work every morning when you wake up <...>. <...> people who are not in love are in a good mood. A man is attached to something <...>. (T) You are not in the last lesson, you write off the subject with some hieroglyphs, you don't understand anything <...> In the past, while driving and megging, I still felt when the bus stopped, now that feeling is no longer there. 2.1.3. There were also spelling errors of the vowels e and (i)a in articles and blogs. The spelling of these vowels is based on the morphological principle and may cause difficulties for students when writing. Here it is not enough to pronounce the sounds of the word correctly and write them down. In writing such words, it is necessary to be able to recognize the morphological structure of the word and apply the rules. As can be seen from the examples, students make mistakes when writing e and (i)a in the endings, suffixes, roots of conjugated words and verbs. (R) Trememi bambini, donne, uomini <...>. <...> to remain virtuous and upright to oneself and to one's neighbour. <...> just a few years and they pass<...> <...> Vilnius University was closed, which at that time was like the sun in social and cultural life. <...> we relax, we get new energy and thoughts <...>. <...> could not survive without them even for a few days. (T) It's a pity that this celebration isn't being covered more widely. We ate at a pizzeria and walked around the shops <...>. Aišku nuotraukų kokybė šeip sau, bet vis geriau negu nieko ;) BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students' writings and blogs | 7 Also found spelling errors of vowels a, e after consonant j: (R) Taigi žmones gali būti nors ir mirę senovės senovėje, tačiau jai jis rašytojas jo niekada nepamirš. Somewhere inside he still felt <...>. Unfortunately, the people of Lithuania in the 19th and 20th centuries did not have <...>. <...> to whom you have sacrificed or sacrificed yourself <...>. <...> why is something that has long been gone alive? (T) <...> until we set the table, and when she entered the house I lit a candle, met her in the corridor and sang Happy birthday to you! A restful head, easier to accept new knowledge. As can be seen from the given examples, the vowels e and ia are most often mistakenly spelled in the roots and endings of words; after the consonant j, the vowels ia and e are most often spelled incorrectly only in the endings (it may be that the sample of texts under examination is too small and simply no such words were found where such errors would be in the roots of words). 2.1.4. Separately, it should be mentioned a group of words, when spelling errors are made due to confusion of forms when writing abbreviated forms of the native. It is a mistake when the long vowel of the final and the shortened vowel are the same: (R) This lesson will remain in his memory for life. <...> when you have to seek someone's company, even in the forest there is harmony. These people remain in our memory for a lifetime. (T) I passed him a lot of times and I drew his attention as many times, just everything happened on the coast <...>. In some cases, spelling could help students here. For example: Finale Substitute ãtmięć atmỹ (These people remain in our memory for a lifetime). 2.1.5. Summarizing the spelling errors of vowels and diphthongs in different students’ texts shows that there are many spelling errors of vowels and diphthongs in them; they are particularly abundant in essays. The ratio of this type of error differs significantly between writing and blogs (see Figure 1). 1 PAV. Spelling errors of vowels and diphthongs in students' essays and blogs (per cent) BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. The most typical spelling errors in students’ writings and blogs | 8 As can be seen, the spelling errors of vowels and diphthongs in writings were found much more. In both types of texts, long and short vowels i–y, u–ū are most often confused (47% of the errors in this group found in written texts; 59% of the errors in this group found in blogs), slightly less errors of confusion of vowels and diphthongs were found (46% of the errors in this group found in written texts; 30% of the errors in this group found in blogs), even less often mistakes were made when spelling e and ia at the ends of words or after the consonant j (7% of the errors in this group found in written texts; 11% of the errors in this group found in blogs). 2.2. Spelling of nasal vowels In terms of the spelling of nasal vowels, it is customary to emphasize the more complex nasal atvejus: tai įsimintinų žodžių rašyba, kai kurių veiksmažodžių rašyba. Įprastai dažniausia klysvowels by writing the nasals in the roots of words. In writings and blogs, it is more commonly mistaken to write nosines at the ends rather than at the roots. 2.2.1. Even more than half of the nasal vowel spelling errors are in the plural noun and singular suffix: (R) When losing love, some people experience it very painfully <...>. You can find many stories that have already happened <...>. One day, she meets her father <...>. For this people expressing gratitude <...>. (T) When I got back, I didn't want to do anything. Finally, when you get out of bed, you will have a lot of thoughts <...>. <...> thoughts fly, or serious work is interrupted by a cough to tears. Often there are cases when one word of the same syllable is written with a nasal, and the other not: (R) <...> wrote about two people, a man and a woman <...>. <...> love helped him discover that Nuo senų laiku meilė žmonėms suteikia kilnumo. hidden nobility. In my opinion, love provides the strongest source of nobility. (T) With this wise thought I end today's fourteenth post. I would like to make a small promotion attraction, in the comments <...>. Ask what you would like to hear about my philosophical thoughts, reflections, answers. Still, it is better to be addicted to music than to drugs. The nouns are also missing when writing the subject-verb, as well as the third person of the pronoun: (R) Grįžė alkę, kiekvieną naktį ieškojo vis naujos gyvenamosios vietos <...>. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 9 <...> treat others as you would like to be treated. <...> we all deserve to experience. (T) If I get bored, it’s only for a while, after a few days I can let it go again and feel the pleasure… You had two days to participate in the poll and choose the topic of this post. So if I had joined I would have been somewhere else, it would have been a big mistake. They always think of themselves as fat, no matter how perfect their figure is. Fewer errors are made in the noun forms of adjectives and adjectives; here the nasals can be spelled incorrectly where they are not needed, and where the nasal letters are needed, the short or long vowels are written: (R) Love for one's native country makes a person noble <...>. remember those wonderful feelings, love and warmth with your second half <...>. <...> “A Speech to the Delightful Reader” motivates readers not to forget their native language. (T) What could be better than getting such grades for a good student? PHP may seem extremely easy at first, but such thinking is superficial – PHP can be learned by coding. Back to the topic of the most recent recovery, related to the global flu fever, due to the absence of teachers, forms ti itin netaisinklingai, taip pat ji yra ganėtinai pažeidžiama pradedančiąjam. are often confused with the conjugated form of the same word and thus make mistakes, most often daugelio mokinių sirgimo pastarasias dvi dienas išvis buvo vos po 2-3 pamokas per dieną. Kita būdinga klaida – netaisyklingas bevardės giminės formų rašymas. Bevardės giminės wrongly spelling the pronoun visa: (R) <...> what is memory and why is it alive? <...> will feel the nobility and pass on all this to future generations. <...> some have seen more of everything and are hardly able to endure it all <...>. And all that is left for us after this day. (T) <...> I have recently learned how to talk to this teacher, so I am not bothered at all. <...> I wanted more natural geography, but what do you do, I have to deal with everything I have now. There is a group of errors where the writing of nasal vowels is more difficult to explain. In the present tense, the noun may be written in the third person, less often in the other person endings of verbs: (R) <...> in speeches about those people who have a lot of money <...>. <...> Tilius does not eat lunch, but sits and looks into the distance. <...> when Tilius falls in love with Agnes, he cannot show his nobility <...>. (T) <...> they like to make men feel guilty, regardless of whether they are guilty or not <...>. Participation in such events will increase knowledge bagage <...>. It is possible that these verbs are confused by students with the participants of the act type. In other places, the verbs may simply be confused, i.e. the students do not distinguish which verb is needed: (R) <...> were ready to recover it at any cost. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. The most common spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 16 that kartą mokiniams paprastai išaiškinti pačią svarbiausią simbolinių pavadinimų rašymo taisyklę, titles must be written in quotation marks, if the title consists of several words, but not names or place names, all except the first word are written in lowercase letters. It is also very important to draw students’ attention to the fact that the rules for writing names may differ in different languages. The problematic cases and tendencies of capitalization have been examined in an article by Ona Laima Gudzinevičiūtė (2015: 6–16). 2.6. Writing of diacritical marks and dots on i, j Another group of spelling errors, which is most commonly encountered only at the present time, is the writing of dots on i, j and the writing of birds on č, š, ž. It is likely that these spelling errors are due to the influence of electronic communication (see Nevinskaitė 2011: 284–285; Miliūnaitė 2014: 1–16). In terms of this group of errors, it should be emphasized that it is also more typical of articles than blogs. None of the blog posts under consideration was written in the so-called ‘slick’ style. Of the 100 texts examined, there were some that contained almost no Reikia pasakyti, kad dažniausiai taškas nededamas ant i raidės, rečiau ant j (kompiuteriu rinkdiacritics. in that text it is not possible to find such errors, because the letters entered by the keyboard are with dots). There were writings that did not include birds on the letters. In such writings, another tendency emerged. In writing, where there are almost no letters with diacritics, the end mark of the sentence is not written at the end of the sentence. Here are just a few examples of how sentences look, in which almost no diacritical marks and dots on i, j. (R) <...> but always spiritually he is in its heart. daznaɩ kenčɩa maɩsto neprɩteklɩų <...>. The poet expresses his love in poems. Such text is not always easy to read, and the meaning of the sentence can often be distorted. These things should be remembered and noted by the students. 2.7. Typographical errors in the electronic space When analyzing blogs, computer-generated texts, errors not typical for handwritten text were noted. The use of signs in electronic space, as in written text, also has its own rules. It is very important to familiarize students with these rules. Most of these signs are used in the field of punctuation, and this article deals only with the graphical expression of these signs. 2.7.1. Electronic texts are characterized by a space. Space errors in blogs are not very many, but it has been observed that in texts shortening word combinations, between the numerical value and its shortening, after the period sometimes no space is left or is left before the colon, comma, period: (T) By the way, this year is 2014, which means that this year is going to be a very successful year for me. <...> so they are fascinated by foreign language, noise, hustle, the rustling of trees, the sounds of birds, etc. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students' papers and blogs | 17 Here it goes like this: I peel an apple from an obels. <...> XII Č. Kudaba national competition, to be held on March 31. Another typographical error characteristic of electronic text is the confusion of a dash with a <...> jiems nepatinka nedemokratiški , o dar ir neteisingi sprendimai <...>. short dash. There are a lot of mistakes in blogs, almost everywhere where there should be a long dash, a hyphen is written. In blogs, a hyphen is often used instead of a dash (which should be a long dash without spaces). There are several reasons for the use of these signs: it is not known that there is a difference between these signs, how to compile the sign on a computer; or maybe just a dash to collect on the computer is just faster. And here are just a few examples: (T) Thursday passes almost unnoticed, and the next morning is Friday! And what happens most strangelydiffers for absolutely nothing. Theoretically, the main target remains the US - both servers and information classified from citizens <...>. The problem is that now for me, probably, is the worst time for such quite large projects - 12th grade. <...> I try not to sit at the computer more than once every two or three days, so there is no time left for new records. They have done overland trip: 2008 - 2009 and 2011 - 2012, Sweden-Tibet-Australia and now I don't remember the other exactly. 2.7.2. Another error in the use of characters, typical of blog texts, is the inappropriate form of Lithuanian quotation marks. In the blog posts examined, Lithuanian quotes are almost not used anywhere. Bloggers either do not know how to write them, or simply pick English. In quoted texts you can find all kinds of them: (T) If I were the main blue-haired character (from the book ‘Burning Bridges’). I remember how we played “The Other” with my mother’s cousin every day. In the evening we went for a walk with my mom, and when we came back we watched “Bee movie”. On Saturday I bought the book “Burning Bridges” and decided to dye my hair in cyan and indigo blue. Unfortunately, the country’s president “Bashar al-Assad”, whose father, and relatives, have been ruling the country since 1971 <...>. “Hello, student life!” I was greeted this autumn with these words. 2.7.3. There are also other errors in blogs, called proofreading errors; most of them are caused by haste, distraction: instead of some letters sometimes other letters are printed, letters are confused, etc. Here are some examples (T): (T) I will not go into more detail, because it would be incorrect to publish it <...>. I can say with confidence that this teacher stands out from the others – the requirements of politeness. I should admit to myself that I'm guilty. I take part in events, lectures, performances. P.S. The 12-year stage is over, a new one is beginning. God grant me to enter where I want BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Būdingiausios rašybos klaidos mokinių rašiniuose ir tinklaraščiuose | 18 2.7.4. The language in the electronic space has both written and spoken features. Blog texts also have their own characteristics. They use a lot of emotional symbols, other means of expressing reikšti jausmus, nuotaiką ir pan. Nagrinėjant rašybos dalykus tinklaraščiuose, pastebėta, kad their feelings, moods bloggers sometimes show a peculiar spelling, i.e. they add more letters, some letters lengthen. These things could be considered stylistically motivated. Here are some examples: (T) Quite scattered, but who cares? It's shiny. And still so trendy. I really need it, tomorrow they will ask:D It was literally cruel fun! And he's so sad without me; ((( How sad... Well, but it's not about that:) Tomorrow is Friday, finally my favorite day of the week is coming. 2.7.5. Separately should be discussed the cases when the non-Lithuanian characters q, w, x are used in the texts under consideration. In blogs, there are some cases of non-Lithuanian use of the letter x (other found letters q, w, x are written only in English words): (T) Crazy xebra biški:D I'm glad that I'm alive and well. I won't tell you the details of the fairy tales, because they will just kill me:D But it's just a bunch of pigs:D The titles of the fairy tales are mixed up because a girl named Ugnė (she's played by me) tore the fairy tale book, and then wrongly glued its pages together. In short, pursue your dreams, be maximalist, but don’t forget what you have. :* As you can see from the few examples, the letter x is written in foreign words. 2.8. Summary and comparison with the characteristics of school written language reported by teachers After analyzing the most typical spelling errors in the students’ writings and blogs, certain spelling error tendencies were revealed. When considering their assumptions and reasons, it is important to take into account those areas in which students use written language, i.e. it is important to assess the impact of information technologies on students’ language. In 2012, the Lithuanian Language Institute conducted a survey of teachers on the written school language Miliūnaitė 2015: 1–16; Vasiliauskas 2013: 27–31). R. Miliūnaitė savo straipsnyje „Mokytojai (for more information on the survey and its results, see: Miliūnaitė 2013: 192–211, about the impact of information technologies on the language of students“ clearly divided the teachers’ answers about the impact of information technologies on the language of students. The responses received8 can be compared with the results of the study discussed in this article. The spelling errors of vowels and diphthongs were mainly found in essays (a little less in blogs). In their answers, teachers do not identify these errors as particularly common or do not directly relate them to information technology. Although spelling errors of vowels and diphthongs are usually associated with incorrect pronunciation skills, it can be considered that these errors are also caused by electronic communication, in which various abbreviations are particularly common. 8 The article examines only those features of written language identified by teachers as a result of the impact of information technologies that are related to spelling. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students’ essays and blogs | 19 skip vowels and leave only consonants (e.g.: db „now“, kvk „what are you doing?“, nzn „I don’t know“, snd „today“, etc.). Such habits can affect students without strong spelling skills: writing words with vowels less often can make it difficult to write a full word. This could be one of the explanations why so many vowel spelling errors are found in texts written by young people. Teachers identify the spelling errors of nasal vowels as the most important characteristic of written language, which has arisen due to the influence of information technologies. There are many spelling errors in the nasal vowels in writing and blogs, it is likely that one of the reasons could be related to information technology (e.g., writing text messages, communication in social networks, etc.). Teachers do not distinguish between the group of mistakes in writing words together and separately. This group of errors can be attributed primarily to the abundance of rules and their exceptions. It has been observed that in essays and blogs students write together words that should be written separately according to the rules. This may also be related to the impact of information technology, because when typing text on a computer or telephone, nu dažnai tarpų nepaliekama ten, kur jie turi būti. Teachers associate capitalization errors in actual words and names with information technology, and these errors are abundant in the students’ essays. Bold spelling errors, which are often caused by writing as heard in pronunciation, are also pointed out by teachers. However, as in the papers, the tendency of these errors is not particularly pronounced. Teachers have particularly abundantly distinguished the group of writing diacritical marks. Obviously, these errors have arisen as a result of the impact of information technology. Such errors have also occurred in individual articles. Other features of written language identified by teachers are more typical of computer-generated texts than of essays: non-Lithuanian letters q, w, x, word munikacijos ženklai. Šie polinkiai nebūdingi rašiniams, reikia pasakyti, kad jie itin reti ir moabbreviations, non-literal characters in electronic blogs. When comparing the most typical spelling errors in students’ writings and blogs with the features of school written language indicated by teachers, which have arisen due to information technologies, it is clear that some groups of errors coincide. This article examines only the most typical spelling errors found in the researched articles and blogs. After analyzing more texts, there may be other errors, such as: abbreviation of words, spelling of surname and nickname, etc. 3.STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MOST CHaracteristic SPELLING ERRORS In this section of the article the most typical spelling errors in students’ writings and blogs are analyzed statistically, a comparative analysis of errors is provided. Before examining the data in more detail, it is important to show how many errors were found in different types of texts9. Thus, in different texts of the same volume, unequal number of spelling errors were found: in essays, a total of 917 errors were found, in blogs – 371 errors. (see Figure 5). 9 Statistical analysis of the data did not include statistics on diacritics, as this would distort the data obtained. you and Diakritinių ženklų rašiniuose nevartojo tik keli mokiniai, skaičiuojant visus keliuose rašiniuose pasitaikančius atvewhen comparing them with other spelling errors, the data would be unequal. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Būdingiausios rašybos klaidos mokinių rašiniuose ir tinklaraščiuose | 20 5 PAV. As you can see, in the articles there were more than twice as many spelling errors as in the blogs. Perhaps this is influenced by the fact that all students write essays, blogs are written only by the most active (and possibly the most literate) students. This error ratio could also be explained by the fact that bloggers correct their publicly published texts with various spell checking programs. It would be interesting to investigate other aspects of the language of articles and blogs, such as syntax errors that cannot be corrected by various programs10. Summarizing the most typical spelling errors in different texts, it was noted that the number and nature of errors differ. The most spelling errors were found in vowels and diphthongs (43 per cent), slightly fewer in nasal letters (37 per cent), even fewer in words written together and separately (10 per cent), capital letters (7 per cent), and consonants (3 per cent). These results are shown in Figure 6. 6 PAV. Typical spelling errors in students’ writings (percent) In blogs, the most common spelling errors were found in the writing of words together and separately (36 per cent), a little less in the spelling of vowels and diphthongs (30 per cent), as well as in the spelling of nasal vowels (28 per cent) and only 4 per cent of all errors were spelling errors of consonants. The smallest group of errors is capitalization – 2%. The 10 Skaitant rašinius ir tinklaraščius pastebėta ypač daug sintaksės (linksnių ir prielinksnių) vartojimo, įvairių leksikos statistics of these errors are shown in Figure 7. errors. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Typical spelling errors in students' essays and blogs | 21 7 PAV. Typical spelling errors in students’ blogs (%) Figure 8 shows the typical spelling errors in students’ writings and blogs. 8 PAV. Most typical spelling errors in students’ essays and blogs (%) As can be seen, all errors, except for writing words together and separately, were found in blogs much less than in essays. It should be emphasized that this article writes only about spelling, when considering other errors, the situation may be different. On the other hand, the results of the study were quite surprising. As you can see, blogs, i.e. texts that students create on their own will and are not controlled by anyone, have significantly fewer spelling errors of all types. It can be assumed that bloggers correct their texts with various spell checking programs; In any case, it shows their awareness and answersThis article discusses only kingą požiūrį į kalbą. the most typical spelling errors. The study is carried out further. After more papers have been examined, other necessary research has been carried out, and teachers have been consulted, a comprehensive study is expected. This would provide better insight into the causes of these errors and would make it possible to make specific recommendations on how to avoid them. CONCLUSIONS 1. since the phonetic principle of spelling prevails in Lithuanian, many words can be spelled without mistakes by simply correctly pronouncing the words and hearing the sounds; but there are words that cannot be written by hearing alone. Apply rules and thus avoid the multitude BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. The most typical spelling errors in students' writings and blogs | 22 errors can only be corrected by having grammatical analysis skills, knowledge of word formation and their forms. When examining the spelling errors of students’ essays and blogs, a tendency to fonetiniu principu. Šiuo principu klaidingai rašomi žodžiai, kurių rašyba turėtų būti tikrinama write words according to common roots was observed. After analyzing the spelling errors of the students’ essays, it became clear that they mainly found vowel and diphthong spelling errors. The spelling of most of these vowels and diphthongs is phonetic, the abundance of errors indicates the shortcomings of the students' pronunciation. The most typical mistake in blog texts is writing words together and separately. This shows that students have difficulty learning and applying the rules of writing words together and separately. 3. Slightly fewer spelling errors of nasal vowels in both types of texts; Most of them are spelling errors in the endings of nasal vowels (especially singular and plural genitive). It can be assumed that the main reason for this is that students do not always perceive the functions of verbs, the relationships of words in a sentence; many abbreviate the long endings, not learning to pronounce the long vowels of the end of the word, more mistakes are made in writing. 4. More than twice as many spelling errors were found in articles as in blogs. This result can be explained by the fact that blogs are written by the most active (possibly even the most literate) part of students; The spelling of blog texts can be corrected by spell checkers. This shows the students’ awareness and responsibility for publicly published texts. 5. In the students’ writings there is a tendency not to write diacritics. It is likely that these spelling errors are due to electronic communication. All the texts of the students’ blogs are written in Lithuanian letters (there are no texts written only in the “swing” way). This indicates that their authors regulate their writing, not detached from the common language. 6. Computer-generated texts must be written in accordance with established rules. Teachers of all subjects should pay attention to this when assessing or teaching writing assignments on a computer. 7. 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