You should use children
instead of element_children
:
array = []
nok_sent.root.children.each {|child| array << "<span class='" + child.name + "'>" +child.text+ "</span>" }
array
# => ["<span class='det'>A</span>", "<span class='text'> </span>", "<span class='nn'>fleet</span>", "<span class='text'> </span>", "<span class='in'>of</span>", "<span class='text'> </span>", "<span class='nns'>warships</span>", "<span class='stop'>.</span>"]
array.join
# => "<span class='det'>A</span><span class='text'> </span><span class='nn'>fleet</span><span class='text'> </span><span class='in'>of</span><span class='text'> </span><span class='nns'>warships</span><span class='stop'>.</span>"