Original scientific paper
Errors caused by language transfer while learning Croatian as L2
Željka Macan
; Slavic Institute, University of Graz
Zrinka Kolaković
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
While learning Croatian as a second or foreign language errors are bound to occur. Some of them are a result of the transfer from a dominant language system (usually the mother tongue L1). This paper analyses written language works of students of Croatian language at the University of Graz whose mother tongue is German. Therefore, errors that occur as a result of an overlap between German as a first and Croatian as a second language will be compared. The data consisted of 35 final works from first year students who had approx. 180 hours of Croatian, and 47 final works from students who had altogether approx. 300 hours of Croatian (approx. 120 hours in the second year). Depending on which elements are transferred, grammatical level, lexical-semantic level, phonological and orthographic level of transfer could be differentiated. As the data was only written language, no phonetic errors could be recorded. Developmental errors were not analyzed, but as it is not always easy to distinguish them from other types of errors, and since some examples included them, they were just briefly mentioned. The hypothesis was that some transfer errors will disappear at higher levels of Croatian knowledge, some will appear less frequently, while new ones will appear with more complex language knowledge. The analysis was qualitative, not quantitative: types of errors were classified and examples were given, not exact numbers of errors found. The hypothesis was confirmed. While the beginners' level of knowledge was characterized by various orthographic errors, the second year students stopped transferring most of them. Both levels had equal variety of error types on the grammatical level. The higher level had more lexical or semantic errors than the lower level, due to a larger vocabulary and more complex semantic demands. Although comparative analysis showed that some errors caused by linguistic transfer that occurred while learning Croatian as an L2 were persistent, they did not diminish with a higher level of knowledge. Those were substitution of letters representing voiceless sounds for voiced (s/z) due to the German orthographic system, word-order of enclitics, dropping of double negative, German types of word formation, and choosing inappropriate Croatian word for polisemic German words. Hence, they demand a different approach in teaching.
Keywords
German transfer errors; Croatian as L2; errors caused by linguistic transfer; level of transfer; dominant language system
Hrčak ID:
31987
URI
Publication date:
29.9.2008.
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