Innovation in Language Learning

This study explores the educational value of Romanian transitional texts within the European CORRIGE project. It asks how historical writing can help secondary-school students become more aware of spelling, analyse errors, and improve their ability to revise their work. The article focuses on Romania’s nineteenth-century shift from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet. This change was part of a wider cultural and political movement linked to national identity, literacy, modernisation, and European cultural belonging. The transitional alphabet, a form of pedagogical scaffolding, is especially relevant from a pedagogical point of view. Familiar Cyrillic signs, simplified forms, hybrid letters, and the gradual introduction of Latin characters helped readers move from an old writing system to a new one. The uneven nature of this process also shows that non-standard spellings should not be seen as failures, but temporary solutions through which writers tested sound–letter relationships, relied on previous knowledge, and adjusted to a changing system. Building on this historical example, the study proposes a short classroom pilot using selected texts in Romanian Cyrillic, mixed transitional script, and standard Latin script. Students complete activities involving historical context, letter recognition, guided conversion, comparison with modern spelling, and self-assessment. The pilot examines whether these exercises improve students’ ability to notice graphic and orthographic features, identify spelling errors, develop correction strategies, and evaluate written language. Student reflections and teacher feedback provide the main data. Within CORRIGE, error is treated as evidence of the learner’s thinking. Correction becomes a cycle of trying, receiving feedback, reflecting, and revising. In this way, the study links the history of Romanian writing with present-day literacy education and offers a Romanian case study for the wider project.