THE LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL

The 22nd Jono Jablonskio Conference

On October 2, 2015, the 22nd Jono Jablonskio Conference was held at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The conference was organized by the School Lithuanian Studies Group of the Centre for Standard Language Research at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language together with the Department of Lithuanian Language at Vilnius University. This year’s conference, The Lithuanian Language in the Contemporary School, was devoted to discussing research on students’ language and language attitudes, as well as the particularities of teaching and assessment.

Speakers from various institutions in Lithuania and abroad took part in the conference. Thirteen presentations were delivered.

NIDA PODERIENĖ, senior specialist in the Division of Primary and Secondary Education of the General Education Department at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, welcomed the conference participants and speakers. The opening remarks were given by RITA MILIŪNAITĖ, head of the Centre for Standard Language Research at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language.

The first session of the conference was devoted to discussing teaching and proficiency. The first two presentations addressed students’ pronunciation, accentuation, and spoken-language tendencies. The presentation Teaching Standard Pronunciation and Accentuation was delivered by LAIMA KALĖDIENĖ of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The presentation discussed changes in the accentuation system, the use of codified language norms, and public attitudes toward them. It presented research showing that the phonological opposition in vowel quantity is weakening, though not to the same degree in all dialects or their varieties; phonological changes in the opposition between long and short vowels are fundamental. Laima Kalėdienė emphasized that the foundations of teaching accentuation and pronunciation in schools need to be changed. The presentation The Spoken Language of Pupils in Southeastern Lithuania and Its Evaluation was delivered by KAZIMIERAS GARŠVA of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. It discussed the pronunciation tendencies of pupils from Šalčininkai, Vilnius, and neighboring districts, as well as meanings of words that are confused in spoken language.

The next three presentations in the first part discussed composing argumentative essays and understanding literary texts. The presentation Rhetorical Argumentation at School: Writing an Argumentative Essay was delivered by REGINA KOŽENIAUSKIENĖ, professor at Vilnius University. It discussed possible ways of arguing in an essay and the conditions that must be met in order to reach a correct conclusion. The presentation also addressed the assessment of essay content and what is assessed in literary and argumentative essays. The presentation Scent in Contemporary Lithuanian Children’s Prose and Lithuanian Language Lessons: What Can We Learn? was delivered by AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The presentation discussed the importance and functions of one of the senses—the pleasant scent of plants—in Lithuanian children’s prose.

BENDRINĖ KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204

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A. Gritėnienė discussed how the scent of the same plant can be described in different ways, and noted that literary works for children most often describe pleasant scents, which may be characterized using various expressive devices (epithets, comparisons, rhetorical exclamations, etc.). The speaker emphasized that this can be excellent material in Lithuanian language lessons for explaining semantic differences between words to students, discussing synonymic relations, and exploring various stylistic qualities—imagery, persuasiveness, precision, vividness, and so on. The presentation Understanding Literary Texts and the Reading Experience was delivered by AKVILĖ JOVAIŠIENĖ and KĘSTUTIS BREDELIS of Vilnius University. It discussed a study that gathered data on results from a standardized reading-comprehension test, grades for the first and second trimesters, and questionnaires completed by students about their reading experiences. The study found that nearly two-thirds of respondents enjoy reading, while about half read additional books, and this is positively associated with their achievement in Lithuanian. Teenagers most often read adventure and fantasy literature. A greater number of students who received higher scores on the standardized test reported becoming absorbed in the book they were reading. Most teenagers said that an interesting book should have an engaging plot, a relevant subject, and an element of surprise. For one tenth of the children, ease of reading was important. Many students regard reading as a worthwhile activity; nevertheless, almost as many read only because they are made to do so by teachers or parents. Although the study results indicate that the situation with reading is not critical, the influence of today’s lifestyle and pace of life is also evident, affecting not only reading habits but also adolescents’ thinking itself and their critical-analysis skills.

The presentations in the second part of the first session were devoted to discussing software and hardware defects, as well as presenting spelling and syntax errors in students’ language. The presentation Software and Hardware Defects That Negatively Affect Students’ Language Culture was delivered by GINTAUTAS GRIGAS and TATJANA JEVSIKOVA of Vilnius University. The speakers presented an experiment in which excerpts from dialog boxes taken from various computer programs were included in a questionnaire prepared for testing. These contained 11 common errors and inaccuracies. Participants were asked to review the questionnaire and mark (underline) the places that needed correction. On average, the experiment participants noticed only about 25 percent of the errors. The speakers reported that, in another survey they had conducted, many respondents admitted that they did not use Lithuanian-specific letters when writing emails and text messages. According to the speakers, the reason is that only a few schools use a Lithuanian keyboard, on which the distinctive Lithuanian letters occupy positions equivalent to those of other letters and can be typed without difficulty.

BENDRINĖ KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204

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The presentation The Use of Double Cases in Secondary-School Graduates’ Essays was delivered by SOLVITA LABANAUSKIENĖ of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The presenter introduced a study examining the use of double cases in essays written for the 2014 Lithuanian language and literature school-leaving examination. She emphasized that errors involving double cases account for as much as 40 percent of all syntax errors, the most common being the use of the instrumental of state instead of a double case. The presentation concluded that more data should be examined to identify the reasons for this usage and to find more effective ways to teach double cases so that these norms are maintained. The presentation The Most Characteristic Spelling Errors in the Blogs and Essays of Upper-Grade Students was delivered by AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. It examined the spelling in texts written by students in two different genres. Analysis of spelling errors by frequency showed that the most characteristic errors differed between essays and blogs. Essays contained mainly errors in writing vowels and diphthongs, while blogs had mainly errors in whether words were written together or separately. Errors in writing nasal vowels were found in both types of text (most commonly in word endings, when writing the singular accusative and plural genitive). The presentation discussed how spelling poses difficulties for many students. Students do not always know how to spell individual words correctly and sometimes cannot apply the rules systematically. These difficulties apparently arise for various reasons: the large number of rules and exceptions, gaps in spelling instruction, difficulties caused by information technology, and so on. The presentation Teaching Problematic Aspects of Latvian Spelling at School was delivered by DZINTRA ŠULCĖ of the University of Liepāja. The presentation placed particular emphasis on the level of spelling skills. The presenter discussed the rapid decline in users’ spelling skills in Latvia and presented studies indicating that students’ orthography is a very serious problem worldwide.

The second session was devoted to discussing the assessment of students’ language skills. The first presentation, What Kind of Student Does the Lithuanian Language and Literature School-Leaving Examination Educate?, was delivered by SAULIUS VASILIAUSKAS of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The presentation briefly outlined the development of the Lithuanian state school-leaving examination in Lithuanian language and literature in independent Lithuania, as well as the current examination tasks and their assessment. It considered the place the examination occupies in the process of learning Lithuanian language and literature; the reactions to changes in the examination; and the influence that the examination tasks and opinions about them may have on students’ and, more broadly, society’s attitudes toward language and literature. The presenter hypothesized that the state school-leaving examination plays too great a role in the educational process: students are encouraged not to develop as creative, free, critical individuals (as stated in the educational curricula and various education

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ISSSN 2351-7204

AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikinėje mokykloje |

policy documents), but rather to prepare for the examination as thoroughly as possible. ZITA NAUCKŪNAITĖ of the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences delivered the presentation The Essay Assessment System in General Education Schools: Objective and Subjective Components. The presentation examined in detail the reasons for subjectivity in essay assessment and introduced a proposed holistic, five-level approach to assessing essay content, one that would be free of a compulsory structural model and might not cause psychocognitive confusion for teachers and students. The presentation What Should Be Improved in the Work of Lithuanian Language and Literature Examination Essay Assessors was delivered by RITA MILIŪNAITĖ of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. The presenter introduced a 2015 study of the quality of assessors’ work on final papers written for the 2014 Lithuanian language and literature examination. The study sought to identify the difficulties assessors encounter when correcting the language and style of essays. The presentation also outlined the study’s findings: the language assessment system for final papers in the state school-leaving examinations in Lithuanian language and literature has weaknesses that may allow assessors’ subjectivity to emerge, thereby creating the conditions for breach of the fundamental principle of assessment—objectivity. Factors that could help improve the assessment system were also briefly presented. RITA URNĖŽIŪTĖ of the Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Centre delivered the presentation Public Speaking Assessment or a Kingdom of Distorting Mirrors? The presentation described a student survey, one of whose principal aims was to find out how students view the sale of speeches prepared in advance for the public-speaking assessment. The survey showed that 40.15 percent of the students who took part considered such trade a legal business. A further 42.22 percent believed it to be illegal, while 17.63 percent said they had no opinion. Drawing on the descriptions of public-speaking assessment speeches offered by sellers, the presentation sought to characterize the image of the potential buyer and the understanding of the public-speaking assessment that have taken shape in this market. It raised the question of whether the current arrangements for organizing and assessing the public-speaking assessment help develop students’ linguistic, cultural, and value orientations.

A new feature of this conference was the discussion held at the end, after all the presentations had been heard: The Concept of Style at School: We Know That We Know Nothing?. The discussion was chaired by IRENA SMETONIENĖ, Associate Professor at Vilnius University, and attended by Lithuanian-language teachers VILIJA DAILIDIENĖ, VIDA LISAUSKIENĖ, and KĘSTUTIS BREDELIS, as well as RITA MILIŪNAITĖ, Head of the Centre for Standard Language Research and Senior Researcher at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. Much of the discussion focused on the essay genre and features of style; participants also discussed shortcomings of style in essays and their assessment. The teachers in attendance actively took part in the discussion and raised questions.

BENDRINĖ KALBA 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSSN 2351-7204

AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ. Lietuvių kalba šiuolaikinėje mokykloje 1

The conference was summarized by VITAS LABUTIS, Professor at Vilnius University.

The abstracts and information about this and previous Jonas Jablonskis conferences can be found on the Institute of the Lithuanian Language website, www.lki.lt.

AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

5 Petro Vileišio Street, LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

BENDRINĖ KALBA 88 (2015)

www.bendrinekalba.lt

ISSSN 2351-7204