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The Attitudes of Parents Towards Early Foreign Language Learning
Full text linkThis thesis reports the results of a study which explores the attitudes of Croatian parents towards early foreign language learning. More precisely, the aims were to determine whether Croatian parents have positive attitudes towards early foreign learning, whether they consider English as more important than other school subjects in the lower grades of elementary school, and if there is a relationship between parents’ age, level of education, the number of foreign languages they know and their previous experience of foreign language learning in school, and their attitudes towards early foreign language learning. The sample consisted of 110 parents of children who attend Croatian elementary schools. Parents’ attitudes were explored through an online questionnaire, which is an adaptation of the fourth part of a questionnaire used in the Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) project (Enever, 2011). The questionnaire consisted of two parts. In the first part, parents were asked to evaluate 19 statements about early foreign language learning and six statements about the relationship between English and other school subjects in the first four grades of elementary school on a five-point Likert scale. Parents were also required to say whether they inform themselves about early foreign language learning and how they do it. The second part of the questionnaire focused on the socio-demographic and other parent-related variables relevant for the study. The results showed that Croatian parents have positive attitudes towards early foreign language learning, but that they do not consider English as more relevant that other school subjects in the lower grades of elementary school. Weak and inconsistent relationships between parents’ age, level of education, the number of foreign languages they speak and their experience of foreign language learning in school and their attitudes towards early foreign language learning were discovered, which calls for further research
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety and Multilingualism: a Case of Croatian-Speaking Undergraduate Students of English Language and Literature
No full textThis thesis aims to explore whether there is a correlation between multilingualism and foreign language anxiety in a classroom environment. The participants in the study were 29 Croatianspeaking undergraduate students of English Language and Literature, who were divided into two groups based on how many foreign languages (FLs) they used in a classroom environment
on a daily or a weekly basis. They filled out an online questionnaire containing questions about their demographic and language background as well as the 33-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale to test their Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) levels in English and, for the students who are either double majoring in English and another FL or attending FL classes outside of university, in another FL. The results showed that there is no significant difference in FLCA levels between the two groups of English language majors. This is consistent with the findings of previous research which shows that the levels of FLCA in bilingual and trilingual individuals are almost equal. Regarding the group containing only students who engaged with another FL besides English on a daily or a weekly basis, the results indicated that they had slightly higher FLCA levels in their other FL than in English. It was proposed that the reason for this could be the age at which they started acquiring the other FL,
which was, for most participants, higher than the age at which they started to acquire English. Another reason might be their constant and greater exposure to English in their daily lives, due to which they might feel more comfortable using English in contrast to another FL, which they only use in a classroom setting. Further research with larger and more diverse sample of
participants could provide more insight into this topic
Effects of Bilingualism on Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Development
Full text linkThis thesis examines the linguistic and nonlinguistic effects of bilingualism. Its purpose is to describe the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism and to confute wrong conclusions made so far regarding the effects of bilingualism in general.
The thesis offers general information about bilingualism and continues with an analysis of positive effects of bilingualism, including enhanced executive functioning, protection against the decline of executive control in aging, enhanced social cognition, easier
acquirement of new information, and linguistic advantages. This is followed by a description of negative effects observed on language proficiency, lexical access, and retroactive and proactive interference. The thesis also reports on the fact that neither positive nor negative effects have been found on working memory
Translation of various types of texts from Croatian into English with commentary
No full textThis B.A. thesis consists of translations of four texts (excerpts) from various fields: literature, journalism, linguistics and agriculture. The texts are translated from Croatian into English, and the translations are accompanied by commentary. The goal of the thesis is to produce competent translations of the texts in question and to discuss the problems encountered while translating them. The thesis is comprised of an introduction, four chapters devoted to each of the translations and their commentary, a general discussion comparing and summarizing all four texts and a conclusion. The original texts are in the appendices
Young Adolescents' Motivation to Learn English in Rural and Urban Settings in Croatia
No full textThis thesis reports the results of the study into the influence of urban and rural context on motivation levels in young adolescent Croatian L2 learners of English. The aim of the study was to investigate whether urban context learners display higher motivation levels than rural context learners and whether the urban context facilitates motivation to learn English as an L2 better than the rural context. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire, administered to a total of 53 participants enrolled in a high school in the Croatian town of Koprivnica. The results show that urban context learners have higher motivation levels on two (out of 11) scales on the motivation questionnaire – Instrumentality and Ideal L2 self. Moreover, the results show that both groups of learners demonstrate an overall high level of motivation and a low level of language anxiety. The learners in both contexts show the highest motivation level on the International posture scale, indicating that they are highly aware of the importance of English as a lingua franca
Subject Pronoun Interpretation in Very Young Croatian Monolingual Children
No full textThis thesis reports the findings of an experimental study on the interpretation of subject pronouns in Croatian monolingual children aged 4-6 years. Croatian is a pro-drop language, which means that it allows for the subject pronouns to be realized overtly (these are the so-called overt pronouns) or to remain phonetically empty (these are the so-called null pronouns). Because the mastery of subject pronouns relies on both morphosyntactic and discourse-pragmatic knowledge, their acquisition may prove to be a difficult process. The task used to test children’s interpretation of null and overt subject pronouns was a picture selection task. The participants were presented with two pictures and had to choose the one which corresponded to the meaning of the sentence presented orally. The sentences consisted of a main and a subordinate clause. Main clauses contained a noun acting as the subject and a noun acting as the object, while subordinate clauses contained either a null or an overt pronoun. The pronouns were ambiguous as both nouns, matched in gender, number and animacy, could be linked to them. The results showed that 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds differed from adults in their interpretation of both null and overt subject pronouns. The responses of all groups of children in the null pronoun condition were split between the main clause subject and the main clause object, and differed statistically from those of adults, which demonstrated a bias, albeit weak, towards the main clause subject. With regard to the overt pronoun condition, children aged 5 and 6 years demonstrated a bias towards the main clause object as the antecedent, although statistically not as strongly as adults. From the statistical point of view, the responses of all groups of children differed from adults’ in this condition. Overall, the results suggest that adult-like antecedent preferences with null and overt subject pronouns develop past the age of 6 in Croatian monolingual children, although some preliminary signs of this development are already present at the age of 5
Anaphora Resolution in Croatian by English-Croatian Professional Translators and Translation Trainees
Full text linkThis thesis reports on the results of an experimental study investigating the resolution of intra-sentential anaphora and cataphora in Croatian in three native speaker groups English-Croatian professional translators, English-Croatian translation trainees and a control group of non-translators. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the professional translators and translation trainees were influenced by their use of and exposure to English, their L2, resulting in L1 attrition. The participants were administered a picture selection task in which they read sentences containing null and overt subject pronouns referring to an antecedent that came either before (anaphora) or after the pronoun (cataphora). After each sentence they had to choose between three pictures that showed the antecedent as the subject, the object or an extra-linguistic referent. The professional translators and the translation trainees did not select the subject as the overt pronoun antecedent more often than the control group in sentences with anaphor. In sentences with cataphora, the translation trainees selected the subject the least, while the professional translators selected it slightly more often than the controls. No evidence of L1 attrition was found
Interpretation of Czech Subject Pronouns in Croatian-Czech Simultaneous Bilinguals
Full text linkThis thesis reports the findings of an experimental study into the interpretation of subject pronouns in ambiguous intra-sentential forward anaphora in the Czech and Croatian language. Both Czech and Croatian are null subject languages, which means that they allow the subject pronoun to be either expressed (overt) or omitted (null). The expression or the omission of the subject pronoun is governed by syntactic and discourse-pragmatic conditions, which means that the speaker must know in which syntactic position the omission of the pronoun is possible, and in which contexts it is appropriate to omit or express the pronoun.
In the study we tested three groups of adults: monolingual speakers of Croatian and Czech, and Croatian-Czech simultaneous bilinguals. The task used to test their interpretation of anaphora was a picture selection task. The participants heard a sentence and were shown two pictures. They had to choose a picture which corresponded to the meaning of the sentence. The sentences were complex; the subordinate clause, which contained the null or the overt pronoun, followed the main clause. The main clause contained the subject and an object, expressed by nouns denoting animals. Nouns were matched in gender, number and animacy and were both possible antecedents for the pronoun. There were also some control sentences in the task, without pronouns, which were used as fillers and to check the participants’ concentration level.
The results showed that the Croatian monolingual group differed from the Czech monolingual and the bilingual group in the null pronoun condition. The Croatian monolinguals predominantly chose the subject as the antecedent of the pronoun, while the Czech monolinguals and the bilinguals preferred the object. In the overt pronoun condition, all three groups chose the object as the antecedent of the pronoun. In the control condition they all chose the (only) appropriate, subject referent, showing that they understood the task. Overall, the results suggest that the interpretation of null pronouns in Czech, and Croatian may be governed by different discourse-pragmatic conditions
Translation of various types of texts from Croatian into English with commentary
No full textThis B.A. thesis consists of translations of four texts (excerpts) from various fields: literature, journalism, linguistics and agriculture. The texts are translated from Croatian into English, and the translations are accompanied by commentary. The goal of the thesis is to produce competent translations of the texts in question and to discuss the problems encountered while translating them. The thesis is comprised of an introduction, four chapters devoted to each of the translations and their commentary, a general discussion comparing and summarizing all four texts and a conclusion. The original texts are in the appendices
Reflexives and Reciprocals in L2 English and Croatian
No full textThe bidirectional study presented in this thesis contributes to the debate on the influence of the L1 and UG in the process of L2 acquisition by looking at the L2 acquisition of reflexives and reciprocals in Croatian and English. The aim was to determine whether the two factors play a role in acquiring an L2 and if they do, which is more important. The study also aimed to establish whether the Full Transfer/Full Access (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996) or Modular approach (Montrul, 2000) to L2 acquisition was on the right track. The study was conducted among native Croatian and English speakers who were lower and upper intermediate learners
of these languages as the L2s. The participants were given four (three in the case of control groups) tasks—a cloze test, a vocabulary translation task (which was omitted for control groups), a picture judgement task and an acceptability judgement task. The results of the study showed the influence of both factors for L2 Croatian learners, manifested through accepting ungrammatical morphological markings as well as treating unaccusative and unergative verbs as transitive. Given the differences in the amount of errors relating to morphological markings and transitivity rules, the results supported the Modular, rather than the FTFA approach. The findings for L2 English learners are less clear
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