Bidirectional transfer in Hindi/Urdu speakers with Czech as a Second Language

• Název práce v češtině: Bidirekcionální transfer u mluvčích hindštiny/urdštiny s češtinou jako druhým jazykem
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Bidirectional transfer in Hindi/Urdu speakers with Czech as a Second Language
• Klíčová slova: bidirekcionální transfer|mezijazykový vliv|osvojování druhého jazyka|hindština|čeština|urdština|výuka češtiny jako druhého jazyka|výuka češtiny jako cizího jazyka|jazykový transfer
• Klíčová slova anglicky: bidirectional transfer|crosslinguistic influence|second language acquisition|Hindi|Czech|Urdu|Teaching Czech as a Second Language|Teaching Czech as a Foreign Language|language transfer
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2015/2016
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav českého jazyka a teorie komunikace (21-UCJTK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: prof. Dr. Barbara Mertins
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 26.10.2015
• Datum zadání: 08.02.2018
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 12.02.2018
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 09.09.2019 08:15
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 17.07.2019
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 09.09.2019
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: Mgr. Eva Lehečková, Ph.D.
• Konzultanti: doc. Mgr. Jan Chromý, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

The aim of the thesis is to examine the influence of Hindi/Urdu in advanced speakers of Czech as second language (L2) with Hindi/Urdu as source languages (L1), as well as the influence of Czech on their respective L1.
So far there has not been any research on Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers learning Czech as a L2 in spite of the fact that dozens Hindi L1-speakers enroll in Czech language courses in India every year (mainly at the Department of Slavonic & Finno-Ugrian Languages, Delhi University) and hundreds of Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers are permanent residents of the Czech Republic and have acquired Czech at various levels of proficiency. The practical objective of this thesis is to provide first empirically based insights for teachers of Czech as a second language to Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers in India as well as in the Czech Republic.
The first, theoretical part will discuss relevant theories of language transfer. In the second, empirical part language production data of approximately 10 speakers with L1 Hindi/Urdu, who have lived for at least 5 years in the Czech Republic, will be analyzed. The analysis will be based on recordings of their language production, in particular on verbalizations of different event types as well as on data elicited from fill-in exercises encompassing picture components. The linguistic data will be compared with standard grammatical descriptions of the above-mentioned languages and to some extent also with language productions of Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers not acquainted with Czech (but living in the Czech Republic temporarily) as well as with native speakers of Czech. It will be important for the proposed analysis to take into account that some of the learners have advanced knowledge of English.
The collected data will be analyzed with respect to the following linguistic aspects: pragmatic transfer (with an emphasis on politeness), lexical and semantic transfer, syntactic, morphological and phonological transfer. The first part of the empirical chapter will be focused on transfer from L1 (Hindi/Urdu) to L2 (Czech).
Considering my own previous experience of teaching Czech as a L2 to Hindi L1-speakers, I expect to find evidence of pragmatic transfer, especially concerning politeness. For example, Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers show a tendency addressing other people with their first name even in formal contexts; greetings are used only in very formal contexts; only imperatives are used when expressing a request.
Lexical transfer is expected to take place (though not very frequently due to the relative typological distance between the languages at stake) in case of semantically and morphologically similar words (such as Hindi/Urdu na and Czech ne which are sometimes used in the sense of “isn't it?”). Semantic transfer will occur as well due to similarities and differences between the Czech three gender system and the Hindi/Urdu two gender system (feminine/masculine), in case of semantic overlaps (one word for “to know” in Hindi/Urdu (jānnā), but two in Czech (vědět/znát), etc.
The influence of transfer will be probably also evident in the field of syntax, e.g., regarding word order (SOV in Hindi/Urdu, SVO in Czech), differences in the use of personal pronouns in the subject position of a sentence, cases (there are only two case markers in Hindi/Urdu), finite/infinite verbs (aspect is expressed through tense and compound verbs in Hindi/Urdu), construction of relative sentences (which contain a relative pronoun in both the sentences in Hindi/Urdu), modal verbs versus subjunctive, etc.
There is a possibility to identify examples of morphological transfer as Hindi/Urdu adjectives often show -ī ending in feminine and -ā ending in masculine which is just the opposite of the corresponding Czech endings. Phonology is another field where cases of transfer can occur, particularly regarding consonants that are non-existent in Hindi/Urdu, like “c” (often pronounced as “s”), “ch” (often pronounced as the most similar Hindi/Urdu consonant “kh”), etc.
The most interesting as well as demanding part of the proposed research will be to investigate and show the role of transfer of Czech in the respective learners' source language. A first analysis will be performed to identify the potential areas in which instances of such reverse transfer may occur. I assume to find an influence of the Czech cultural and language environment on the ways of expressing politeness in the Hindi/Urdu L1-speakers because of the high sensitivity of this area and strong repercussions in case of mistakes made by learners of Czech. In particular, I expect to find excessive use of greetings and politeness words such as zarā (“a bit”, please) or śukriyā (thank you), and the use of request questions instead of very polite imperatives. Cases of lexical and semantic transfer (translation of idioms), syntactic transfer (use of active verbs and additional clauses at the expense of participles, verbal nouns and absolutives common in Hindi/Urdu; simplification of the verbal tense system) might sporadically occur as well.
To summarize, I expect a rich repertoire of transfer cases when studying the influence of Hindi/Urdu on Czech. Nevertheless, the reverse transfer will be certainly much more subtler and more difficult to detect.

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