Latviešu mācībvalodas un mazākumtautību izglītības iestāžu vidusskolēnu latviešu valodas kompetence: salīdzinošais pētījums

The topicality of the research is related to the State policy of education to strengthen the role of the Latvian language as a national language by enabling the integration of society and intercultural dialogue. The aim of the study is to analyse the level of language competence of Grade 12 students of Latvian language of instruction in comparison with minority schools. The results of the empirical research are obtained from 468 texts written by students with the Latvian language of instruction and minority secondary education institutions in different regions of Latvia. The texts used are systematised in the balanced corpus of modern Latvian language. The research was conducted within the framework of the National Research Programme “Latvian Language” (No VPP-IZM-2018/2-0002). An analysis of essays’ content, sentences, contextual binding of their sets, language style, orthography, and punctuation has been carried out. Data from the study shows no significant difference between the skills of Latvian language of instruction and minority secondary education institutions’ students to form text according to the topic. Approximately 57% of respondents follow the proportions among different parts of the text, the binding of sentences to create the text as a whole, the principle of completion of the text; 29% of respondents use language features exactly according to language style. The most common language errors in the self-created texts of students from both types of schools are punctuation errors, the spelling of short and long vowels and consonants in words, words written together and separately, and the spelling of foreign names. Students from minority secondary schools make simpler sentence syntactic structures and by 9% fewer punctuation errors. Still, they have 32% more errors in spelling words and the use of words in sentences. In the didactic of the Latvian language, we have to think more about learning of language based on discourse, in which the text has a social context at first, only then a linguistic form. We have to develop a sense of language for students, improve a methodology for learning linguistics terminology, cooperation between teachers of all subjects, and the attitude of each teacher to their own language and speech in the learning and teaching process.