Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning

Dobravac, Gordana

doi:10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

Strani jezici : časopis za primijenjenu lingvistiku, Vol. 54 No. 1, 2025.

Izvorni znanstveni članak

https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning

Gordana Dobravac orcid.org/0000-0003-3394-1985 ; Fakultet za logopediju Sveučilišta u Rijeci

Puni tekst: hrvatski pdf 800 Kb

str. 5-34

preuzimanja: 119

citiraj

APA 6th Edition

Dobravac, G. (2025). Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning. Strani jezici, 54 (1), 5-34. https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

MLA 8th Edition

Dobravac, Gordana. "Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning." Strani jezici, vol. 54, br. 1, 2025, str. 5-34. https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1. Citirano 01.07.2026.

Chicago 17th Edition

Dobravac, Gordana. "Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning." Strani jezici 54, br. 1 (2025): 5-34. https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

Harvard

Dobravac, G. (2025). 'Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning', Strani jezici, 54(1), str. 5-34. https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

Vancouver

Dobravac G. Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning. Strani jezici [Internet]. 2025 [pristupljeno 01.07.2026.];54(1):5-34. https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

IEEE

G. Dobravac, "Creating a New Strategy for Agent Identification in the Initial Stages of Croatian Language Learning", Strani jezici, vol.54, br. 1, str. 5-34, 2025. [Online]. https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-1/1

Sažetak

This study analyzes the process of acquiring case cues among English-speaking learners during the early stages of learning Croatian as a second language. The participants (N=16) were native speakers of English enrolled in an intensive two-month beginner-level Croatian course. Sentence processing in real time was measured twice (after 40 and 80 hours of instruction) using a reaction time method, while a group of native Croatian speakers (N=20) served as the control group. The study was framed within the connectionist Competition Model of cue processing (MacWhinney, 2008). The results of noun selection in transitive sentences and reaction times showed that learners in the early stages of acquisition attended to case information only when the prototypical “animate agent” cue was disrupted, while accusative case in the initial position functioned as a formal signal without being linked to its thematic role. The absence of horizontal integration between case and animacy suggests that cues were processed in isolation, indicating shallow language processing. In conclusion, the integration of new linguistic information occurs gradually, with initial attention directed toward general grammatical regularities, followed by specific patterns that form simplified rules. More broadly, the results suggest that a new processing strategy emerges through the continuous adaptation of new linguistic units to the existing system, guided by general cognitive mechanisms and a hierarchy of regularities, as opposed to explicit knowledge that is immediately consolidated