THE COMPARISON OF COMENIA SCRIPT WITH THE ENGLISH VERSION OF WRITING

Abstract

This article focuses on the handwriting which is integral to reading literacy. Handwriting has been around people since time in memorial, in this contribution we will therefore deal with the historical development of handwriting up to the present times, features of the two fonts, teaching of elementary writing and the application of the modern font CS (Comenia Script) into the Czech elementary schools. Attention is focused primarily on the contemporary teaching of elementary writing. The issue of the CS is current, the font has been used in the Czech Republic for the teaching of a very initial writing since 2010. CS was created as a reaction to the EHS (English handwriting script). Due to teaching of English language, which is according to the RVP ZV (Framework Education Programme for Basic Education) taught in the Czech elementary schools from the third grade, EHS implemented into schooling. Schools are creating their own SVP (School Education Programme) according to the RVP ZV, thanks to this English language could be taught already from the first grade. For this reason our research focuses on the differences of these two styles of handwriting, CS and EHS. The aim of this contribution is to compare within the qualitative research these two models of writing in terms of graphomotricity and find out if they are convenient to the needs of modern times. Firstly we will define given issues and general terms connected with the teaching of elementary writing. After that we will analyze written patterns which are used in the Czech elemetary schools. Finally through interviews with elementary teachers, we will find out which font they prefer the most and what causes the biggest problems to the pupils during the learning of writing. We will then interpret the results of the research in this article.