Total Dictation: punctuation lessons

Abstract

The article reflects on the experience of working on those comments on the Total Dictation texts which concern the use of punctuation marks. Moreover, the study analyses the results of correcting dictations over a ten-year period. The analysis of specific cases from practice shows why variation arises in the proposed texts, what rules are especially difficult for participants in the educational event, and what gaps in reference books Total Dictation reveals. Thus, the main reasons for permissible (not leading to a lower mark) variation are a) rule formulations including the words mogut (mozhet) (English can/may), obychno (English usually), kak pravilo (English as a rule), facultativno (English optionally); b) the possibility of different semantic and communicative division of a particular construction. The varying degrees of participants’ rule internalisation sometimes results in applying better internalised rules to cases that are not applicable to these rules. Comparison of the Total Dictation texts with reference books shows that the latter do not prescribe some frequent normative spellings accepted by literate native speakers. All these observations can be useful both when compiling school teaching and learning materials and when preparing a new Russian punctuation rule book, as well as reference books based on it.