Challenges in the Latvian Language Acquisition: a Case for Riga Technical University

Humanitārās un sociālās zinātnes 2017
Lāsma Gaitniece

The first-year students of Riga Technical University (RTU) have an opportunity to attend the course in the Latvian language as the second language in the first academic semester. This elective course is intended for students whose native language is not Latvian and who did not obtain their previous education in Latvian at either the secondary school or vocational education institution. Within the framework of the Latvian language study course, special attention is devoted to the study of texts of different levels of complexity belonging to various language styles, the most common being scientific and popular-scientific style. The aims of the course in the Latvian language as the second language are to expand the students’ word 103 stock, revise grammar issues paying particular attention to spelling, and to develop their terminological competence in the major. Home reading tasks are organized to facilitate acquisition of professional vocabulary: Students select a text on their major and comment on its content. The types of most common spelling and stylistic mistakes identified in student commentaries are analyzed in the present paper, considering the causes of these mistakes and offering solutions to avoid them. The concluding part of the paper discusses the issues concerning observation of the norms of the Copyright Law. Numerous violations of these norms have been identified in student commentaries. Many students demonstrate critical lack of awareness of the norms of this Law, as copyright issues were not addressed in the secondary school. Awareness of copyright issues is critical in further education process, for example, when students draw up reports, and develop term papers and bachelor papers.

Keywords
Latvian as second language, professional lexics, spelling, stylistics, copyright

Gaitniece, L. Challenges in the Latvian Language Acquisition: a Case for Riga Technical University. Humanitārās un sociālās zinātnes, 2017, Vol.27, pp.93-103. ISSN 1407-9291. e-ISSN 2255-8543.

Publication language
Latvian (lv)