Orthographic norms in high school practice

Abstract

Linguistic literacy is one of the most prominent aims of the educational process. Through curricular activities of the subject Serbian language, which are almost identical for comprehensive and vocational secondary schools, students acquire normative rules of the standard Serbian language. Orthography teaching is based on orthographic norms and holds a special place in the Serbian language curricula. In this article, we will try to answer the question to what extent the students of the final years of comprehensive and vocational schools respect and apply orthographic rules. The research was conducted during 2010/11 academic year and included 583 students of the third and fourth years of comprehensive and vocational schools in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Jagodina and Kruševac. During their regular classes, the students filled in a questionnaire containing relevant questions on orthography, adapted for their age. The questions covered the following orthography areas: scripture, capitalization, sound changes and relations between sounds, junctures and separately written words, and punctuation. The results show that not a single student answered all questions without deviating from the norm at least once. Also, the results indicate that the students are the least familiar with the norms regarding joined or separately written words, and that capitalization and punctuation rules are most frequently obeyed.

Jezička pismenost predstavlja jedan od najznačajnijih ciljeva vaspitno-obrazovnog procesa. Kroz programske zahteve nastave srpskog jezika, koja se u gimnazijama i srednjim stručnim školama odvija gotovo prema istom nastavnom planu i programu, učenici usvajaju normativna pravila standardnog srpskog jezika. Posebno mesto u nastavi srpskog jezika zauzima nastava pravopisa koja se temelji na ortografskoj normi. U ovom radu ćemo pokušati da odgovorimo na pitanje koliko učenici završnih razreda srednjih škola poštuju pravopisnu normu i u kojoj meri primenjuju pravopisna pravila. U istraživanju koje je realizovano školske 2010/2011. godine učestvovala su 583 učenika III i IV razreda gimnazija i srednjih stručnih škola u Beogradu, Novom Sadu, Jagodini i Kruševcu. Učenici su, na jednom školskom času popunjavali upitnik koji sadrži relevantna pitanja iz pravopisa, namenjena za spomenuti uzrast učenika. Pitanja u upitniku se odnose na normu iz sledećih pravopisnih oblasti: pismo, veliko slovo, glasovne promene i odnosi glasova, spojeno i odvojeno pisanje reči i interpunkcija. Rezultati pokazuju da nijedan učenik nije odgovorio na sva pitanja iz upitnika, a da nijedanput nije odstupio od pravopisne norme. Takođe, rezultati upućuju na to da učenici najmanje poznaju normu vezanu za pravopisnu oblast spojeno i odvojeno pisanje reči, dok najčešće primenjuju pravopisna pravila o pisanju velikog slova i pravila o upotrebi interpunkcije.