DunjaPAVLIČEVIĆ-FRANIĆ,PhD, fullprofessor KatarinaALADROVIĆ SLOVAČEK,MEd,researchassistant FacultyofTeacherEducation, UniversityofZagreb 10000 ZAGREB, Savskacesta 77 Tel. ++385 1 6327-300; ++385 1 6327-339
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MASTERING MORPHOLOGICAL COMPETENCE IN THE ACQUISITION OF CROATIAN AS L2
Abstract
During the project “Developmentof Communicative Competence in the Early Croatian Language Discourse”(2006-2011), a research on the mastering of Croatian as a second language was carried out among the children of Croatian emigrants to Germany. Although all participants were born in Germany and German is their dominant idiom, most of them (76.5%) consider Croatian to be their mother tongue. However, the study has shown that all participants use German as the first language of communication and their Croatian language competences are lower. This means that, despite their personal attitudes towards Croatian as their mother tongue, Croatian is in fact the second language (L2) of these speakers.
The research has been carried out on the sample (N = 100) of participants belonging to different age groups and different groups according to the number of years they had studied Croatian. As Croatian morphology is one of the most difficult grammatical contents, the primary aim of the research was to investigate the mastery of the morphological competence as that segment signals the general level of the mastery of the standard Croatian language. The instrument used in this study was the Test of Communicative competence in the Croatian language. For the purpose of this paper the part dealing with the mastering of the morphological competence of the standard Croatian language was analysed. The data were analysed with the SPSS statistical analysis software. The method used was Pearson’s correlation coefficients to show correlation between the dependent variable (mastery of the morphological competence) and the independent variable (years they had spent learning Croatian).
Research results will be used for the purpose of the analysis of language competences in pupils whose second heritage language (L2) is Croatian and the estimation of the successfulness of Croatian language teaching abroad.
Key words: communicative competence, Croatian language teaching abroad, heritage speakers, acquisition of Croatian as L2
Introduction
Early language acquisition research[1] has confirmed the fact that the process of the acquisition of the organic or first language (L1) differs from the process of theother or second language (L2) learning. This is due to the fact that in the process of the non-mother tongue mastering an interlanguage is created in which elements of the first and the second language interfere. In this process non-mother tongue learning can have a double meaning: learning a completely new and unfamiliar language system (foreign language), or acquiring a language idiom which the speakers had already partially mastered, usually in the early childhood (the heritage language). This paper deals with the acquisition of Croatian as a heritage language in children of Croatian emigrants.
The Croatian language is mostly the only one or one of the two idioms the pupils who attend Croatian classes abroad had acquired in their early childhood. When they get included in the educational institutions of the country in which they live, the language of their wider environment takes over the role of the first language used in communication, while at the same time Croatian slowly loses its dominance. Although all pupils who participated in this research[2] had been born in the Federal Republic of Germany and have the German language as their dominant idiom, most of them consider Croatian to be their mother tongue. This is probably due to the fact that Croatian is the language of their parents, their cultural circle, and their national identity. However, this research and the communicative practice have confirmed that the German language competence of the participants is higher than their Croatian language competence. Despite their personal attitudes towards Croatian as their mother tongue, the truth is that they learn Croatian as their second (heritage) language.
Mastering morphological competence of Croatian as a heritage language
Apart from the 4.5 million of native speakers in the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian language is used in communication by the same number of speakers outside of their homeland. Hence, the issue of learning and acquiring the Croatian language abroad has necessarily become part of the Croatian educational policy. Such learning and acquisition is carried out in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the document entitled Curriculum for Croatian classes abroad (Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, 2003) which stresses the following educational aspects: competence-based approach (development of communicative and linguistic competences), developing basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), and communicative-functional approach to teaching. It needs to be stressed that the participants start learning Croatian systematically only within the program of the Croatian tuition abroad, when they encounter the standard Croatian idiom which is more or less different than their localCroatian idiom which the speakers were exposed to in their families. The input language is the individual organic idiom of the Croatian language, while the target language refers to the standard Croatian language. Four main factors which influence the qualities of the input and the target languages can be pointed out: the level of the communicative competence in the local idiom; the influence of the spoken model (of teachers, parents, environment); the influence of the written language given in textbooks and teaching materials; the influence of various media (Pavličević-Franić, 2005). Bearing in mind that this paper deals with the Croatian classes abroad, besides the main factors one needs to consider the other linguistic and extralinguistic elements which influence the formation and acquisition level of the target language. These are primarily the pupils’ motivation, their age and cognitive development, exposure to communication carried out in the target language, their linguistic background, sociocultural environment, and as a separate element, the grammatical structure of the standard Croatian language.
Morphologyis certainly one of the most difficult grammatical aspects of the Croatian language. Thus, the primary aim of this research was to establish the mastery of the morphological competence as this segment points to the level of the general mastery of the standard Croatian language. In the Croatian language morphology has a very important role in the communicative process because Croatian, as a highly synthetic language, uses affixes and inflections for the purpose of delivering the same type of information which in the analytical languages is transferred by means of the specific word order and syntactic categories.
The Croatian language is morphologically very complex. Declinable words differentiate between three genders in both singular and plural forms and seven cases. Words that are conjugated have seven verb types with a number of verb classes, six persons and two aspects. Language acquisition is additionally complicated by various phonological rules. Therefore, mastering the morphological competence is one of the most complicated tasks faced by the native speakers (Alerić, 2006) studying the standard Croatian language as their mother tongue in the Republic of Croatia(L1). Naturally, it is even more difficult for the pupils who acquire it as their heritage language abroad (L2).
Material and Method
Pupils attending Croatian classes abroad in the German province Baden-Wurttenberg, coordination Ulm (cities: Friedrichshafen, Konstanz, Rottweil, Scweninge, Singen, Tuttlingen, Ulm, Villingen) participated in the research which was carried out in June 2010. A total of 150 pupils participated in the research; 48% of the sample were boys and 52% girls, ranging from 6-18 years of age. The most numerous group comprised pupils aged 8-14.
The test of communicative competence in the Croatian language was administered to the pupils to test their level of acquisition of language competences. For the purpose of this paper the segment of the mastery of the Croatian morphology was extracted and analysed. Deviations from the verb morphology (verb conjugation and the knowledge of the basic tenses – present, perfect, future) and the morphology of nominal words (declination and comparison) on sentential and textual levels were established. Only those answers given in accordance with the expected standard idiom forms were accepted. As Croatian dialects often have morphological and phonological rules which differ from the standard idiom rules, in the analysis of the results dialectal forms were considered as incorrect.
Another focus of this research wasto establish the extent to which the mastery of the morphological language competence was influenced by the years the pupils had studied the Croatian language.The participants were divided into 12 categories depending on how many years they had studied the Croatian language (1-12 years of study). Most participants had studied Croatian for up to one year; fewest participants had studied it for 11-12 years.
The first part of the test comprised two communicative tasks with morphophonological focus in which participants were required to perform word-transformational exercises on given words or phrases in order to make sentences meaningful. The second part of the test comprised two written compositions – using stimulative pictures to create a story and describing a photograph. The deviations in the nominal and verbal morphology at the level of text were counted. The data were analysed by means of the SPSS statistical analysis tool, using parametric and non-parametric methods. Kolmogorov Smirnov z test was used to test whether the data set was modelled by a normal distribution or not.Pearson correlation coefficient was used to establish the correlation between the years of study of the Croatian language and the level of mastery of the morphological competence. The Mean value, standard deviation, median-central value, and minimal and maximal score were used in the description and comparison of deviations from the standard language norm.
According to the research results, the following hypotheses were either confirmed or rejected:
H1 – It is expected that the participants will be most successful in acquiring the nominal words in which no sound changes occur; that they will be quicker to master the declination of nouns than the declination of pronouns and adjectives, and that the worst results will be found in the declination of numbers.
H2 – It is expected that the participants will have most successfully mastered the basic conjugation forms used to express the present (present tense), past (past tense) and the future (future I) at the sentence level.
H3 – The participants are expected to make more mistakes at the level of text than at the sentence level.
H4 – It is expected that those participants who have studied the Croatian language longer will show a greater mastery of the standard language morphological competence.
Research results
The first part of the results refers to the mastery of the morphological competence in the declination of the nominal words, verb conjugation (present, past, future I.) and the comparison of adjectives at the sentence level. Research results have shown that most participants (65%) have mastered the first and the second Croatian cases – nominative and genitive (graph 1). When it comes to their knowledge of the dative the participants have better results in the words in which no sound changes occur (e.g. baki) than in the words in which sound changes occur (e.g. sibilantisation,majci).
Graph 1: Mastery of cases ( N, G, D)
As far as the accusative case is concerned, minor deviations have been found in the formation of the singular and plural of nouns (e.g. mamu,konje), and in the difference between the nouns used to denominate (living) beings and (non-living) things (e.g. čovjekapovratak). Similar results have been found in the use of the prepositional accusative (e.g. u Zadar). Significantly more mistakes have been found in the words in which sound changes occur (e.g. fleeting a, pas–psa) and in the declination of the phrases such as Republika Hrvatska (Republiku Hrvatsku). (graph 2)
Graph 2:Mastery of cases (A)
In their knowledge of the locative (graph 3), the participants have achieved better results in the use of verbal nouns (e.g. gledanje– u gledanju) than in the general nounsin which sound changes occur (e.g. fleeting a: čamac – u čamcu).
Graph 3:Mastery of cases (L)
When it comes to the declination of the noun phrase consisting of an adjective and a noun, the participants have obtained worse results in the formation of cases. The percentage of such mistakes is significantly higher if the adjective and the noun in such a phrase do not have the same case endings. For example, in the phrase of the type na Hrvatskoj televiziji 64% of the participants have made a mistake, while in the phrase of the type dobre emisije deviations have been found in 25% of the participants (graph 4). In the comparison of adjectives, it has been noticed that participants have better knowledge of the positive than of the comparative and the superlative forms of the adjectives.
Graph 4:Mastery of cases ( adjectives and nouns)
In expressing the pronominal case forms, the participants have had better results in the dative and genitive forms of the pronouns, while the accusative forms of the pronouns were not that good. Ordinal numbers were familiar to some 75% of the participants (graph 5). However, the results related to the declination of the cardinal numbers were much worse, especially when the gender neededto be differentiated (dva,dvaju, dvama...; dvije, dviju, dvjema...).
Graph 5:Mastery of cases (pronouns and numbers)
By summing up the results related to the morphology of the nominal words, it can be concludedthat the participants have scored higher on the declination of nouns (M = 0.46, SD = 0.68, C = 1, MIN = 0, MAX = 1)[3] than on the declination of pronouns (M = 0.40, SD = 0.82, C = 1, MIN = 0, MAX = 1) and ordinal numbers (M = 0.42, SD = 0.76, C = 1, MIN = 0, MAX = 1), and lower than on the declination of cardinal numbers and comparison of adjectives (M = 0.47, SD = 0.66, C = 1, MIN = 0, MAX = 1).
In the morphology of verbs, the participants have had good results in the formation of the present tense, however, with a difference related to the verb aspect. Better results have been achieved on the perfective form of the auxiliary verb to be (1st p.sg., budem), than on the biaspectual verb to be (1st p.sg., idemo). It is interesting to note that the best results have been achieved in the formation of the perfect tense, probably due to the fact that perfect is a very frequent tense found in the communication in the Croatian language. Most participants have mastered the formation of the future I (76%) as well as the formation of the Croatian active participle (about 60%) (graph6). Finally, it can be pointed out that the results of the mastery of the conjugation paradigms in the three main tenses was better (M = 0.44, SD = 0.73, C = 1, MIN = 0, MAX = 1)than the declination of numbers and pronouns. However, it was worse when compared with the declination of nouns and the comparison and declination of adjectives.
Graph 6:Mastery of tenses
In accordance with the results achieved on the test of the nominal and verb morphology, and within the test of the general communicative competences, the hypotheses 1 and 2 can be accepted. According to these hypotheses it has been predicted that most participants will have mastered the morphological competence of the nominal words and the verbal morphology in the main tenses at the sentence level.
The third hypothesis referred to establishing the mastery of the morphological competence at the level of text. As expected, the number of deviations was much higher than at the sentence level. It is indicative that almost half of the participants did not complete that exercise. In other words, they did not write the composition. The ones who did write it made quite a few morphological errors (5-13 mistakes on average). The most frequent deviations at the level of text have been found in congruency (disagreement of gender, number and case) and verbal government(disagreement of persontowardsobject or subject). Examples are:pravla igla (pravila sam iglú); napadalo snjeg(napadalo je snijega); djeca su svršili školu(djeca su završila školu); djeca morali (djeca su morala); drveća su pokriveni (drveće je pokriveno); na slici imaju pet ljudi (na slici je pet ljudi). Some mistakes have been made due to the influence of various local idioms. For examplevičeju (viču), radu (rade); za kaj plačeš?(zašto plačeš?),je bil (je bio), ožla/ošla (otišla); pokopo (pokopao); odnesla (odnijela); njinih (njenih); šta(što). Deviations at the level of phonology have been found as well. They occur due to the interference of the German language system, e.g. ptizu (pticu); naschla (našla), sakai(zakaj-zašto). All participants often used personal pronouns I, she, he, even when they were not required in Croatian. This is due to the influence of the German language and it results in the creation of the interlanguage field. In the comparison of adjectives deviations in spelling have been found (naj sretniji – najsretniji), while in writing phonemes got left out (jean – jedan). In accordance with the given results, the third hypothesis can be confirmed according to which it was predicted that the participants would deviate from the standard language morphological competence more at the level of text than at the sentence level (on average there were 5 deviations per composition).
The fourth hypothesis referred to the correlation between the years participants have spent learning the Croatian language and their results obtained on the test of the mastery of the morphological competence. Pearson coefficient has shown a statistically significant difference in the declination of nouns with the correctly carried out sound changes with regard to the years of learning the Croatian language (r = 0.30, p < 0.01). Moreover, a statistically significant difference with regard to the years spent learning Croatian has been found in the formation of accusative and the demonstrative pronoun and noun (r = -0.191, p < 0.01) and in the formation of the comparative form of the adjectives (r = -0.257, p < 0.01). That has partially confirmed the fourth hypothesis predicting that the mastery of the morphological standard language competence would be connected with the years spent learning the Croatian language.