Understanding the punctuation and spelling signs in romania to eliminate functional illiteracy

• Author: Ramona Mirabela Oprea
• Position: Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University, Chisinau, Moldova
• Pages: 269-280

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşo v

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 12(61) No. 2 – 2019

https://doi.org/10.31926/but.ssl.2019.12.61.2.10

UNDERSTANDING THE PUNCTUATION AND

SPELLING SIGNS IN ROMANIA TO ELIMINATE

FUNCTIONAL ILLITERACY

Ramona Mirabela OPREA1

Abstract: The international comparative research initiated by the OECD in

the 1990s has shown that a considerable proportion of Europeans are

classified as functional illiterates, even though they have completed at least

primary school. Spelling and punctuation condition the specific human-

readable-writing process. We can counteract this deficit perfectly and

diminish the scale of the phenomenon of functional illiteracy, giving

individuals and social groups another chance for education. The need to

express ideas in writing so that they can be understood by the reader may

increase the interest in studying spelling and punctuation, as well as

establishing rules for their use. This article proposes to address punctuation

and spelling signs with examples that could be used as part of an option for

primary education in Romania in order to reduce functional illiteracy.

Keywords: functional illiteracy, literacy, primary education, spelling signs,

punctuation marks

1. Introduction

Until the late 1960s, illiteracy was treated in developed countries as a scary

phenomenon in the poor and backward areas of the so uth. The conviction that the

problem h as been resolved forever has been universal and well anchored in the

consciousness of European societies (Daniel, 2000). Later, discovering the scale of

illiteracy in the developed countries of the West ha s caused shocks and surprises. The

functional illiterate contemporary person knows the letters in their individuality but

does not know how to connect them. In addition, she can read a sentence, but she does

not know how to understand her content. Generally, a functional illiterate is considered

to be an adult whose written language skills are lower than necessary to meet

established social requirements, social participation, and individual chances of self-

realization. Low academic abilities, especially reading, are related to poor

neurocognitive performance in verbal memory, visual memory, attention and motor

dexterity (Tuominen, 2014).

1 Ion Creanga State Pedagogical University, Chisinau, Moldova, oprearam1980@yahoo.com