ORTHOGRAPHIC COMPETENCE OF STUDENTS AT THE END OF THE FIRST GRADE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL

Summary – First grade pupils develop their language competence by learning how to write. One of the most important language competences in fi rst grade are writing capital and cursive letters. Once they master the alphabet, pupils start to develop their orthographic competence by learning orthographic rules at the theoretical level (linguistic competence) and at the practical level (communicative competence). According to the Teaching plan and program (2006) fi rst graders should know how to correctly write names, surnames, nicknames, names of towns they live in, and names of their streets. In addition to that they should know which punctuation mark should be placed at the end of a sentence (full stop, question mark, exclamation mark). This article is a review of a pilot research by which the degree of orthographic knowledge and most common orthographic mistakes in the fi rst grade of primary school in the knowledge and use of orthographic rules (capital and small letters, punctuation marks). The results reveal the degree of pupil knowledge, but also reveal common mistakes that pupils at that age make and which are not necessarily orthographic. The research was conducted at the “Bukovac ” primary school in Zagreb based on the questionnaire which was completed by 60 fi rst graders (N=60). The article is a contribution to standardization at the beginning of education, since it will create a basic precondition for easier and more successful learning of orthography in the process of initial reading and writing in the fi rst grade of primary school