Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikinėje mokykloje

BENDRINö KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204 LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN A MODERN SCHOOL 22nd Jon Jablonskis Conference On 2 October 2015, the Lithuanian Language Institute hosted the 22nd Jon Jablonskis Conference. The conference was organized by the School Lithuanian Studies Group of the General Language Research Centre of the Lithuanian Language Institute together with the Department of Lithuanian Language of Vilnius University. This year’s conference Lithuanian language in modern school is dedicated to the study of pupils’ language, linguistic attitudes, as well as the peculiarities of teaching and assessment. The conference was attended by speakers from various Lithuanian and foreign institutions. There were 13 reports. The conference participants and speakers were greeted by N IDA P ODERIENė, Senior Specialist of the Primary and Secondary Division of the General Education Department of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania. R ITA M ILIŪNAITė, Head of the General Language Research Centre of the Lithuanian Language Institute, made the introductory remarks. The first part of the conference was devoted to teaching and learning. The first two presentations are about the students’ pronunciation, pronunciation and oral language tendencies. LAIMA KALöDIENė from the Lithuanian Language Institute read the presentation “Normal pronunciation and pronunciation training”. The presentation dealt with changes in the pronunciation system, the use of codified language norms and the public evaluation. The report presents studies that show that the phonetic opposition of the number of vowels weakens, although not in all dialects or their variants equally; phonological changes in the opposition of vowel length and shortness are essential. Laima Kal÷dien÷ pointed out that it is necessary to change the basis of pronunciation and pronunciation teaching in school. KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA from the Lithuanian Language Institute reads the presentation “Speaking language of students in South-East Lithuania and its evaluation”. The report discussed the pronunciation tendencies of students from Šalčininkai, Vilnius and neighboring districts, as well as the confused meanings of words in colloquial language. The other three presentations of the first part were about writing a reasoning essay and perception of a literary text. The presentation Rhetorical argumentation in school: the creation of a reasoning essay read by Vilnius University professor REGINA KOŽENIAUSKIENė. The report discussed possible ways of argumentation in the essay, what conditions must be met in the essay to reach the correct conclusion. The presentation also talked about the evaluation of the content of the essay, which is evaluated in literary and reasoning writing. Notification Scent in contemporary Lithuanian children's prose and Lithuanian language lessons. What can we learn? reader AURELIJA GRITöNIENė from Lithuanian Language Institute. The presentation discusses the importance and function of one of the senses – the pleasant smell of plants – in Lithuanian children’s prose. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENö. Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikin÷je mokykloje | BENDRINö KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204 A. Grit÷nien÷ talked about how differently the scent of the same plant is described, that in fictional works for children usually talk about a pleasant smell, which can be described by various means of artistic expression (epitets, comparisons, rhetorical exclamations, etc.). The speaker pointed out that in Lithuanian language lessons this can become a great material for explaining to students the semantic difference of words, talking about synonymic relations and various stylistic features – visuality, persuasion, accuracy, liveliness, etc. AKVILö JOVAIŠIENė and KĘSTUTIS BREDELIS from Vilnius University presented the paper Perception of aesthetic text and reading experience. The presentation was about a study, during which data were collected on the results of the standardized text comprehension test, the assessments of I and II trimesters, as well as the questionnaires filled out by students about their reading experience. The study revealed that almost two thirds of respondents like to read, about half of respondents read additionally and this is positively related to their Lithuanian language achievements. Most often, teenagers read adventure and fantasy literature. A larger number of students with higher standardized test scores say that they empathize with the book they are reading. Most teenagers stated that an interesting book must have an engaging plot, a topical theme and unlikelihood. For one in ten children, it is important that the book is easy to read. A large number of pupils consider reading as a meaningful activity, yet almost as many pupils read only because they are encouraged by teachers or parents. Although the results of the study show that reading is not critical, but the influence of today’s lifestyle and rhythm is felt, which affects not only reading habits, but also the teenager’s thinking and critical analysis skills. The second part of the first session was dedicated to software and hardware defects, as well as spelling and syntax errors in students’ language. GINTAUTAS GRIGAS and TATJANA JEVSIKOVA from Vilnius University read the paper Software and hardware defects that have a negative impact on students’ language culture. The speaker presented an experiment, during which dialog box fragments taken from various computer programs were put into the questionnaire prepared for testing. These include 11 of the most common errors and inaccuracies. The participants were asked to read the questionnaire and mark (underline) the areas to be corrected. On average, the participants in the experiment noticed only about 25% of the errors. The speakers revealed that in another survey, many respondents admitted that they do not use distinctive Lithuanian characters when writing e-mails and text messages. According to the speakers, the reason for this is that only a few schools use the Lithuanian keyboard, in which the distinctive Lithuanian letters are in equivalent positions with other letters and their typing does not cause inconvenience. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENö. Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikin÷je mokykloje | BENDRINö KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204 SOLVITA LABANAUSKIENė from the Lithuanian Language Institute read the paper on the use of binary verbs in graduates’ essays. She presented a study, during which she examined the usage of bijective verbs in the 2014 Lithuanian language and literature maturity exam essays of graduates. She pointed out that about 40% of all syntax errors consist of binary verbs errors, of which the most common error is the use of the conditional noun instead of binary verbs. The report concludes that more evidence is needed to investigate the reasons for this use, as well as more effective methods of teaching binary verbs to maintain these norms. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENė from the Lithuanian Language Institute reads the presentation The most typical spelling errors in blogs and essays of upper-class students. The presentation examined the spelling of two different genres of texts written by students. The analysis of spelling errors by frequency showed that the most typical spelling errors in articles and blogs differed. In the writings, the majority of spelling errors were in vowels and diphthongs, in blogs, in words written together and separately. In both types of texts, spelling errors of nasal vowels were found (most of them are made in the endings, when writing the singular final and plural pronoun). The report referred to the fact that many pupils have difficulties with spelling. Pupils do not always know how to spell individual words correctly, sometimes they are unable to apply the rules systematically. These difficulties seem to be due to various reasons: the abundance of rules and their exceptions, gaps in spelling teaching, difficulties caused by information technology, etc. DZINTRA ŠULCö from the University of Liepaja presented the paper Teaching problems of Latvian spelling in school. The report mainly describes the level of writing skills. She spoke about the rapidly deteriorating spelling skills of language users in Latvia, and presented studies that show that the problem of spelling in pupils is very serious all over the world. The second speech was devoted to the evaluation of pupils’ language skills. What kind of student is educated by the Lithuanian language and literature maturity exam? read SAULIUS VASILIAUSKAS from Lithuanian Language Institute. The presentation briefly presents the development of the Lithuanian language and literature state maturity exam tasks in independent Lithuania, the current tasks and their evaluation. Considered the place of the examination in the process of learning Lithuanian language and literature; what reactions are received by its changes, what influence the exam task and opinions about it can have on the attitude of students and society in general to language and literature. The speaker assumed that the state maturity exam plays an overly important role in the educational process – students are not encouraged to develop as creative, free, critical personalities (which is declared in educational programs, various educational regulations), but to prepare for the exam as carefully as possible. ZITA NAUCKŪNAITė from Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences read a presentation on Writing evaluation system in general education schools: AURELIJA TAMULIONIENö. Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikin÷je mokykloje | BENDRINö KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204 objective and subjective elements. The report examines in detail the reasons for the subjectivity of essay evaluation, presents and proposes a holistic five-level evaluation of the content of the essay, which would be freed from the mandatory structure model and perhaps not cause psychocognitive confusion to teachers and students. RITA MILIŪNAITė from the Lithuanian Language Institute reads the report What needs to be improved in the work of the Lithuanian language and literature examination evaluators. She presented a study on the quality of the work of evaluators of the Lithuanian language and literature final exam theses written in 2014, which was carried out in 2015. The aim of the study was to determine the difficulties faced by evaluators when correcting the language and style of theses. The report also presents the results of the research – the language assessment system of the final theses of the state maturity exams in Lithuanian language and literature has weak points, where the subjectivity of the evaluators can manifest itself, so there are prerequisites to violate the basic principle of evaluation – objectivity. The report also briefly presents factors that could help improve the evaluation system. RITA URNöŽIŪTö from the Science and Encyclopedias Publishing Center read the presentation Public speaking accounting or the kingdom of crooked mirrors?. The presentation presented a student survey, one of the main objectives of which was to find out how students evaluate the trade of pre-prepared credit languages. The survey showed that 40.15% of the pupils who participated in the survey consider such trade as a legal business. 42.22% of the surveyed students believe that such business is illegal, and 17.63% stated that they had no opinion. Based on the annotations of the public speaking accounting languages offered by the sellers, the report attempted to describe the image of the potential buyer and the understanding of public speaking accounting in this market. The question was raised whether the current organization and evaluation of public speaking helps to develop students’ linguistic, cultural and values attitudes. At the end of the conference, after listening to all the presentations, there was a discussion on the concept of style in school: do we know that we no longer know anything?. The discussion was led by IRENA SMETONIENė, associate professor of Vilnius University, Lithuanian language teachers VILIJA DAILIDIENė, VIDA LISAUSKIENė, KĘSTUTIS BREDELIS, RITA MILIŪNAITė, head of the General Language Research Center of the Lithuanian Language Institute and senior researcher. In the discussion a lot was discussed about the genre of the essay, style features, style shortcomings in essays, their evaluation. Teachers who gathered to ask questions also actively participated in the discussion. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENö. Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikin÷je mokykloje | BENDRINö KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204 The conference was summarized by Professor VITAS LABUTIS of Vilnius University. Theses, information about this and previous conferences of Jon Jablonskis can be found on the website of the Lithuanian Language Institute www.lki.lt. AURELIJA TAMULIONIENö Institute of Lithuanian Language Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius, Lithuania [email protected]