SPELLING AND ORTHOTYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF GALICIAN

One of the most important transformations brought about by the Bologna process has been the introduction of the communicative approach in language teaching and learning. While this approach offers a more complete view and experience of the language, it has also led to a certain neglect of spelling and typographical syntax skills. As a result, university language students continue to struggle with orthotypographical rules and concepts that should have been acquired much earlier on in their education. Compounding the problem, the language standard for Galician offers no solution to a number of issues of this kind, leaving teachers and students to fill the gaps using a variety of grammars, dictionaries and style guides. This article has a double objective: firstly, to highlight the most common orthotypographical errors committed by university students of Galician; and, secondly, to compare the Galician Spelling and Morphological Standard (Normas Ortográficas e Morfolóxicas da Lingua Galega) with other texts that deal with orthotypographical issues in Galician, in order to illustrate the differences between them. The final aim of the paper is to catalogue the most orthographically and orthotypographically challenging forms encountered by students, as an aid to teachers and learners alike.