Dinamika ovladavanja strukturom \u27there is/there are\u27 u engleskome kao inome jeziku

Abstract

Prompted by the lack of research into acquisition of existential there by young learners of L2 English, in the study described below we looked into how Croatian learners acquire this grammatical construction, which is very relevant both from the theoretical perspective and for pragmatic reasons. We addressed the issue from a longitudinal perspective and took into consideration some individual and contextual factors that we found relevant for understanding acquisition of existential there. The study was carried out as part of the Croatian national research project entitled Acquisition of English as a foreign language from an early age: Analysis of learner language. Our fi ndings suggest that there are patt erns that young learners display during mastering this important construction. It seems that these acquisitional patt erns may develop in dynamic ways and are infl uenced by a number of factors (such as L1, amount of exposure to English). We conclude that it is not only very important to expose learners as early as possible to the pragmatic use of there construction that does not involve only the immediate context, but also to the function of bringing existence of something to mind, as both pragmatic functions share the same conceptual representation. The insights we obtained can be useful to curriculum and material designers, as well as practicing teachers.Iako se gramatička struktura there u engleskom jeziku smatra iznimno važnom, vrlo je malo istraživanja dosad provedeno koja bi ponudila dublji uvid u proces njezina usvajanja. Nedostak takvih spoznaja posebno je uočljiv kad je riječ o usvajanju engleskog kao inog jezika kod mlađih učenika. U ovom smo radu pokušali ispitati usvajanje konstrukcije there kod hrvatske djece koja ovladavaju engleskim kao inim jezikom, a pritom smo u obzir uzeli relevantna osobna učenička obilježja i karakteristike konteksta u kojem su učili. Istraživanje je provedeno u sklopu nacionalnog znanstvenog projekta Usvajanje engleskoga jezika u ranoj dobi: analiza učenikova međujezika. Naši nalazi pokazuju da ovladavanje tom jezičnom strukturom karakterizira dinamični razvoj tijekom kojeg se izdvajaju utjecaji faktora poput J1 ili izloženost engleskom jeziku. Uvidi do kojih smo došli mogu biti korisni kreatorima nastavnih programa i materijala te nastavnicima praktičarima