Dunja PAVLIČEVIĆ-FRANIĆ, PhD, full professor
Katarina ALADROVIĆ SLOVAČEK, MEd, research assistant
Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb
10000 ZAGREB, Savska cesta 77
Tel. ++385 1 6327-300; ++385 1 6327-339
e-mail: dunja.pavlicevic-franic@ufzg.hr
e-mail: kaladrovic@gmail.com
MASTERING MORPHOLOGICAL COMPETENCE IN THE
ACQUISITION OF CROATIAN AS L2
Abstract
During the project “Development of 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 research1 has confirmed the fact that the process of the acquisition
of the organic or first language (L1) differs from the process of the other 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
research2 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 local Croatian 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.
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Morphology is 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 was to 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 wordtransformational 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.
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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. čovjeka
povratak). 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)
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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 nouns in 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.
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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 needed to 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
concluded that 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%) (graph 6). 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,
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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 person towards object 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 example vičeju (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
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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.
Discussion
The research on the mastery of the standard morphology in the process of the acquisition of
Croatian as heritage language in Croatian tuition abroad has shown that participants have
mastered the nominal and verbal morphology better at the sentence level than at the text level.
Most participants have mastered Croatian cases, while significant deviations have been found
in the formation of dative, accusative and locative in which sound changes occur. Moreover,
the participants have achieved better results in the declination of just one nominal word than
on the declination of the phrases (adjective and noun; two pronouns; pronoun and noun). In
the morphology of verbs the participants have had good results. Since only the mastery of the
basic tenses has been studied (present, perfect, future I), more than a half of the participants
was found to have mastered the mentioned morphological level. At the level of text the
deviations from the morphological norm were significantly higher. Most mistakes were made
in congruency and verbal government and were mostly due to the interference of the local
idioms and German as the dominant language. The participants’ successfulness on the test
was only partially proportional to the years of learning the Croatian language, i.e. the years
participants have spent learning Croatian in an institutionalised environment do not
necessarily guarantee a better morphological competence. That indicator is connected with the
fact that Croatian is a heritage (not foreign) language of the children of our emigrants which
means that they had acquired it as a system in the early childhood.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that Croatian language morphology is extremely difficult to master, it can be
concluded that the participants have good mastery of the declination and comparison of the
nominal word forms and the conjugation of the basic verb forms necessary for
communication. Due to the complicated nominal and verbal morphology, the comparative
analysis has shown that even the native speakers of Croatian who learn standard Croatian as a
mother tongue (L1) make mistakes at the morphological level. Therefore, deviations in the
Croatian classes abroad are also expected as they are attended by the heritage speakers who
study Croatian as a heritage language (L2). At the level of grammar and spelling
developmental mistakes are very similar in pupils who acquire Croatian as first language and
those who learn it abroad as the second language. In the latter, the deviations caused by the
influence of the local (dialectal) Croatian idioms and the German language are more
expressed. In accordance with the results of this research, it can be concluded that the
organisation of Croatian classes abroad needs to be adjusted so that all language skills are
developed, reading and writing in particular, in order to diminish the number of deviations at
the level of text and in order for the speakers of Croatian as the heritage language to achieve
the level of the coordinated multilingualism4 at all idioms they use in various communicative
situations.
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Kuvač, J. & Palmović, M. (2007). Cvikić, L., Jelaska, Z. & Kanajet, L. (2010). Pavličević-Franić, D., GazdićAlerić, T. & Aladrović Slovaček, K. (2012).
2
The project “Development of Communicative Competence in the Early Croatian Language Discourse”,
Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and the Faculty of Teacher Educaiton, University of Zagreb (20062011) was carried out by professor Dunja Pavličević-Franić (project leader), Tamara Gazdić-Alerić, PhD and
Katarina Aladrović Slovaček, MEd (project associates).
3
M = arithmetic mean; SD = standard deviation; C = central tendency; MIN = minimal result; MAX = maximal
result; r = correlation coefficient
4
Coordinated parallel mastery of two or more linguistic codes, without negative interferences and language
transfer, in which the speaker is equally competent in all idioms he/she uses in communication.
1
References:
Alerić, M. (2006). Imanentna gramatika u ovladavanju standradnojezičnom morfologijom.
Lahor, časopis za za hrvatski kao materinski, drugi, strani jezik, 2, 190-206. Zagreb:
HFD.
Cvikić, L., Jelaska, Z., Kanajet, L. (2010). Nasljedni govornici i njihova motivacija za učenje
hrvatskoga jezika. Croatian Studies Review, 6, 113-128. Split: Filozofski fakultet,
Centar za hrvatske studije.
Jelaska, Z. (2007). Ovladavanje jezikom: izvornojezična i inojezična istraživanja. Lahor,
časopis za hrvatski kao materinski, drugi, strani jezik, 3, 86-99. Zagreb: HFD.
Pavličević-Franić, D. (2011). Jezikopisnice, rasprave o usvajanju, učenju i poučavanju
hrvatskoga jezika u ranojezičnome diskursu. Biblioteka Scientia et Artes. Zagreb:
Alfa.
Pavličević-Franić, D. (2005). Komunikacijom do gramatike. Zagreb: Alfa.
Pavličević-Franić, D., Gazdić-Alerić, T., Aladrović Slovaček, K. (2012). Jezične
kompetencije učenika u hrvatskoj nastavi u inozemstvu. Napredak, 153, 64-76.
Zagreb: HPKZ.
http://narodne-novine.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeni/2003_12_194_3073.html Kurikulum hrvatske
nastave u inozemstvu (preuzeto 4.4.2012.)
Dunja PAVLIČEVIĆ-FRANIĆ has a PhD in Croatistics from the University of Zagreb. She
is a full professor on the Faculty of Teacher Education and has been teaching Croatian for 30
years. She published 60 scientific papers, 15 books, textbooks and manuals. Field of interest
are applied linguistics, linguodidactics and early acgusition of Croatian. She is head of two
scientific projects and associate the third one. She is the advisor in the National Centre for
Evaluation of Education, and the associate of the Universitiy of Zagreb and the Ministry of
Science (Commission for the selection of teachers lecturing abroad). She has got the State
Prize Ivan Filipović, for the promotion of education theory and practice in higher education.
Katarina ALADROVIĆ SLOVAČEK has a MEd in Croatistics from the University of
Zagreb. She is a research assistant, employed at the Faculty of Teacher Education. Her field
of interest is applied linguistics, specially communicative competence in early language
learning/acquisition of Croatian. She has won a master's degree and published 10 scientific
articles, 2 chapters in book and some professional papers. At the moment, she is completing
her doctoral dissertation.
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