The Language of New Media in the Students' Written Texts from the Perspective of Primary School Teachers

Failure to adhere to orthographic rules as a consequence of new media writing, makes linguists and teachers assume that today's youth has become illiterate. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the estimates of teachers of Croatian regarding the presence of language elements of new media in written schoolwork of 8thgraders, but also in the texts they produce in their free time, mainly because teachers have the best insight into their students' writing, both in the school context and in informal situations, such as writing in new media. Through the research, the authors attempted to establish the extent to which the teachers are familiar with students' correspondence in their free time. The authors were also interested in establishing whether these estimates vary according to the teachers' age, work experience and county of origin. A total of 110 teachers from four Croatian counties participated in the research. The instrument used in the research was a survey in which the teachers estimated the presence of language elements of new media in students' written schoolwork, and the use of these elements in the texts written in new media in the students' free time as well as teachers' estimates regarding the students' written correspondence in new media in their free time. The results show the teachers estimated that students rarely use new media language elements (NMLE) in their written schoolwork, but they often use them when using new media in their free time. Their estimates differ only for the students' writing in their free time according to the teachers' age and work experience. The results also show that teachers have an insight into the students' written correspondence in their free time.