Identifying Common Errors in Vertical Lowercase Manuscript Writing of the First Graders in Primary School
1,2Yildiz Technical University, Department of Primary Education, Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract
The aim of the study is to identify common writing errors of the first graders in primary school. The sample of study was consisted of 67 students. Case study was used for the research design. A data collection tool was developed for identifying the errors that students have made while writing vertical lowercase letters. According to the findings, the most common types of errors encountered occurred as a result of non-compliance with the rules related to the writing directions of the lowercase letters. Also, it was seen that curved shaped were drawn in some letters which must have been drawn a line-shaped, that some letters were drawn round not fully closed which must have been drawn round, that the round of letters were drawn as ellipses that when the letters were drawn ellipse-shaped letters were drawn in a tilted way and that the round of letters was combined with the line in the wrong side.
Keywords:Primary school, Writing errors, Vertical lowercase letters.
1. Introduction
In developed societies, the progress of an individual in his/her field is only possible if he/she has advanced reading and writing skills. Because modern people cannot have the necessary level of knowledge without having an effective reading skill. Similarly, an individual cannot share his knowledge with his environment without gaining an effective writing skill (Sahin, 2012). It is acknowledged that education is very instrumental and an essential agent in national development. Akdemir and Eyerci (2016) as a result, improving the quality of education, especially at the basic education level, has become the concern of all nations (Esia-Donkoh and Baffoe, 2018). Kaya and Akdemir (2016) education is a condition which can alter a person’s values and can influence the changes in a person’s behaviors (Istiningsih, 2016). No doubt, the acquisition of literacy skills is seen as the primary goal of basic education (Sahin, 2012). Writing is to be able to produce the symbols and signs necessary to express our thoughts systematically (Akyol, 2001). Writing is the written form of expressing feelings, thoughts and information in the mind. Writing helps individuals to learn as well as meet their communication needs (Belet and Yaşar, 2007). When the definitions related to writing are examined, it is seen that the general goal of writing is to express thoughts through writing (Sahin, 2012).
The text is defined as the forms of words and phrases in the spoken language identified on paper by some symbolic figures and drawings (Celenk, 2007). Handwriting is one of the most important skills that must be earned in primary school education. The acquisition of handwriting begins with first reading and writing process (Göğüş, 1982). The studies to be carried out on the issue and the methods to be applied are included in the primary school Turkish programs (Ministry of National Education, 1997).
In primary school programs of our country until 2005, the use of vertical letters in the teaching of uppercase and lowercase alphabet was requested. The adjoining oblique writing instruction was handled together with the "sound based sentence method" in the 2005 Primary School Turkish Language Teaching Program (Grades 1th-5th) and it was envisaged to teach the adjacent oblique writing to the students in the first grade of primary education and to continue this writing in the later years (Sahin, 2012). With the Turkish Language Course Teaching Program (for 1th-8th Grades) which was started to be implemented in the 2017-2018 academic year, the adjacent oblique letters in the Turkish first reading and writing instruction were replaced by the vertical alphabet (MoNE, 2018).
Ayık and Ataş-Akdemir (2016) writing skill is a skill gained with practice. Developing students' writing skills depends on continuous reading, writing, and analyzing their own writings. The first grade of primary school is very crucial because of gaining the necessary skills. Teacher should correct learning errors in students' writings with appropriate educational way considering of the student's developmental level (Demirel, 2006). In primary school, primary school teachers need to determine the characteristics of students’ writing mistakes in order to correct their writing errors. Errors frequently made by students in writing in Turkish programs are listed as the direction of writing, the size of writing, writing on the line border, spacing between words, the writing style of letters and clearness of writing (Bay, 2010).
When the literature review was investigated, there was no study found about what kind of mistakes were made in the manuscript writing of the vertical lowercase letters. Therefore, the errors related to the "way of writing letters", which is one of the mistakes that primary school students often make during primary school writing studies, have been examined in the study. Another reason why such a study is needed is that mistakes are found regarding letters and numbers when the writing of students from 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades at primary school are analyzed. It is thought that this study is especially important in order to be aware of the possible errors that may occur in the students and to prevent these errors from occurring while performing the reading and writing processes of the primary school teachers who are new to the profession.
Considering of the topic, “What are the mistakes made by primary school students about the manuscript writing of the vertical letters?” has been determined as the problem of the study.
2. Method
2.1. Research Design
Case study from qualitative research methods was used in the study. According to Stake (1995) and Yin (2009;2012) case study is a research design in which researchers analyze a particular situation, often a program, event, action, process, one or more individuals in depth. In the study, research design was determined as case study as the vertical letters of the first graders in primary school were examined and their learning errors were tried to be analyzed.
2.2. Participants
The research was carried out with 67 students studying in first grade in public school. The reason why first graders were preferred was that first grade is the expected year for students to acquire their reading and writing skills. It is thought that a positive contribution can be made to the acquisition of reading and writing skills through investigating of the situation in the process. It is thought that measures can be taken to eliminate these errors by determining the ongoing errors.
2.3. Data Collection Instruments
In the study, the data collection instrument was developed by the researchers in order to determine the first graders’ writing errors on vertical letters. When developing a data collection instrument, 12 objects and animals were identified, all of the 29 letters in the alphabet will be found at least once and students encountered in daily life. At this stage sound groups in the curriculum are taken into consideration. Then, some words were chosen and these words were deve (camel), gözlük (glasses), jilet (razor), kamyon (truck), köpek (dog), yıldız (star), bisiklet (bisiklet), fare (mouse), ağaç (tree), cami (Mosque), hortum (hose) and kuş (bird). The images expressing these words were placed on A4 appropriately, leaving a space under each visual for the name of the visual. Figure 1 shows a visual example of a part of the data collection instrument for letters.
Figure-1. A part of the data collection instrument for letter typing mistakes.
Source: Data Collection Instrument
After the data collection instruments were developed, three classroom teachers and three experts were consulted. As a result, the data collection tools are finalized and ready for implementation.
2.4. Data Collection and Data Analysis
The data collection instrument was given to students and the names of visuals were asked to be written in lowercase letters. After the data collection instruments were distributed to the students, 40 minutes were given and they were asked to fill the gaps appropriately.
Collected data were generally examined and papers that were an unreadable, the majority of papers which were not filled in or filled with improper content were excluded from the evaluation.
In the review process, the data obtained from the students were compared with the correct spelling patterns of lower case letters (Figure 2), and especially common mistakes made were classified.
Figure-2. Writing of vertical basic lowercase letters
Source: MoNE (2018)
3. Findings
In this section, types of common errors that students make when writing vertical lowercase letters and sample visuals from each type of error is tabulated.
Table-1. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “a”
Source: Research Data
Table-2. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “b”
Source: Research Data
Table-3. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letters “c” and “ç”
Source: Research Data
Table-4. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the bottom part of letter “ç”
Source: Research Data
Table-5. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “d”
Source: Research Data
Table-6. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “e”
Source: Research Data
Table-7. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “f”
Source: Research Data
Table-8. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letters “g” and “ğ”
Source: Research Data
Table-9. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the top part of letter “ğ”
Source: Research Data
Table-10. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “h”
Source: Research Data
Table-11. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letters “ı” and “i”
Source: Research Data
Table-12. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the top part of letter “i”
Source: Research Data
Table-13. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “j”
Source: Research Data
Table-14. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “k”
Source: Research Data
Table-15. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “l”
Source: Research Data
Table-16. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “m”
Source: Research Data
Table-17. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “n”
Source: Research Data
Table-18. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letters “o” and “ö”
Source: Research Data
Table-19. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the top part of letter “ö”
Source: Research Data
Table-20. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “p”
Source: Research Data
Table-21. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “r”
Source: Research Data
Table-22. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letters “s” and “ş”
Source: Research Data
Table-23. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the bottom part of letter “ş”
Source: Research Data
Table-24. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “t”
Source: Research Data
Table-25. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letters “u” and “ü”
Source: Research Data
Table-26. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the top part of letter “ü”
Source: Research Data
Table-27. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “v”
Source: Research Data
Table-28. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “y”
Source: Research Data
Table-29. Types of common errors and sample visuals from these errors which were made about the letter “z”
Source: Research Data
4. Discussion
According to the findings obtained from the research, there are many types of errors related to the writing of uppercase and lowercase letters of first grade students. Mistakes about the steps of drawing followed while drawing the letter and mistakes made about the stages of drawing, in other words, typically visual mistakes are the types of error. However, it was observed that some perceptual errors related to the letters also generate to these types of errors. For example, it was observed that most of the students perceived lowercase “j” as an uppercase “J” while writing the lowercase “j” and they wrote the lowercase letter in a capital letter size. Again, it was observed that most of the students drew the lowercase j’s tail on the right side instead of drawing to the left side. Similarly, when the writing patterns of the lowercase “t” letter were analyzed, it has been observed that many students also drew the letter in the size of letters “e, n, u” without the upper extension or the lower extension. These examples are thought to be due to the fact that the students have a perceptual error in relation to these letters. When figurative mistakes are considered, it has been observed that the error type available for each letter differs according to the features and shapes of the parts required to form the letter.
In most of the letters there are places where a straight line needs to be used. Considering the situation, it has often been observed that the lines were drawn obliquely where a straight line must be used. When this is the case, the fact that the letters that must be written as vertical letters are mostly written in italic letters constitutes a proper visual to perceive in this way. It has also been observed that these parts which should be drawn as straight lines, in other words linear, are drawn as a curve at the level that is often expressed. This is one of the reasons why the letter is typed. Most of the letters have short straight line inside such as a, b, d, e, f, g-ğ, h, ı-i, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, u-ü, v, y and z.
The letters ı-i, k, v and z consist of only straight lines. Considering all the typing mistakes, it was determined that the drawing mistakes of these letters were less. However, many mistakes have been found because of the fact that the straight line is drawn in italic or curve.
The letters c-ç, o-ö and s-ş consist of only curved lines. It can be said that the ratio of errors related to these letters is similar to the error rates of the letters typed with only straight lines. Although it seems more difficult to draw curvilinear lines correctly, it has been seen that the error rates in the letters with straight lines are not at a minimum because the students are forced to draw straight lines linearly or without sloping.
The letters a, b, d, e, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, r, t, u-ü and y contain both a straight line part and a curved line part which must be drawn in a linear way. The students must draw both the straight line and the curvilinear line correctly, in order to write the letter correctly. In other words, it can be said that double skills are required for the correct writing of these letters. Considering the situation, the following result was observed when student drawings were evaluated in general. It has been seen that most of the students made erroneous drawing while writing these letters. It has been seen that most of the mistakes were made in the process of creating both the straight line and the curvilinear line found in the letter correctly and assembling these formed parts correctly.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, priority and importance should be given to drawing practices as an important dimension of reading and writing, however, these studies should continue to be supported by the writing process. In other words, when the drawing practices are finished, it is necessary to do extra drawing activities in an integrative process rather than focusing on letter writing. The findings of the study carried out by Altun et al. (2014) support the integrative writing process. In addition, another important point that is considered to be important in the literacy process is the fact that studies aimed at improving the muscular memory as well as the small muscle development of the students should be added to the process. Because the most important role in the letter writing process is the person's muscle memory. Although hands, arms and eye muscles work well and effectively, muscles must be exercised correctly and adequately in order to acquire the proper habit of making a letter. It is thought, however, that writing is lagging behind reading in the first literacy teaching process. It should be noted that the continuation of the first reading in an integrated structure is an important condition in the development of the reading skills as well as the development of the writing skills. Therefore, as Bilir (2005) emphasized the importance of the study, it is thought that teachers should increase their writing activities instead of just focusing on reading activities.
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