La transferencia en personas plurilingües: los falsos amigos como un obstáculo y una oportunidad en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras
Failid
Kuupäev
2018-02-02
Autorid
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Abstrakt
Varasemate teadmiste ja oskuste ülekandmine uude olukorda ja konteksti on üks põhilisi õpimehhanisme. Vanuse kasvades oskame järjest paremini ette aimata, kuidas keegi teatavas olukorras käituda ja kõneleda võiks ning seega ei ole vaja iga kuuldava või loetava lause mõistmiseks läbi viia põhjalikku süntaktilist ega semantilist analüüsi, vaid nende hoomamine toimub üsna automaatselt ja teema või situatsiooni põhjal alateadlikult tekkinud ootustele toetudes. Selliselt suudavad inimesed keelt mõista märkimisväärselt kiiresti ning tõhusalt. Teisalt aga võivad tekkida probleemid, kui kuuldu või loetu ei väljenda ootuspäraseid seisukohti või esitab hoopis uudset mõtet. Uuringud on näidanud, et kipume ka sellistest olukordadest välja lugema seda, mis meie tõekspidamistele ja teadmistele paremini vastab.
Kui hakkame õppima võõrkeeli, on selle juures võimalik kasutada kõiksugu varem omandatud teadmisi keel(t)e, pragmaatika, inimestevahelise suhtluse ja kultuuri kohta, ühesõnaga kogu varasemat elukogemust. Oma laiemalt olemuselt on kõik keeled sarnased märgisüsteemid, mille eesmärk on võimaldada suhtlemist, ning neil on palju sarnaseid jooni, mis võimaldavad neid omandada ilma maailma uuesti lapse kombel kaardistamata. Niisiis kehtib keeleõppes n-ö mõistuspärasuse põhimõte: eelda, et keel toimib loogiliselt ja selle eesmärk on edastada mõtteid teistele arusaadavalt. Küll võib aga erinev olla see, mida mingis kultuuriruumis loogiliseks või eeldatavaks peetakse.
Kui kohtame näiteks hispaania keeles sõnu televisión või sector, eeldame, et need vastavad eestikeelsetele sõnadele „televisioon“ või „sektor“, ning enamasti nii sarnased vormid ka tähendavad sarnast sisu. Küll aga võivad erineda nende sõnade kasutusvõimalused ja tähendusväljad. Näiteks võib carácter hispaania keeles tähendada „karakterit“ nagu eesti keeles, aga ka kirjatähti, ning ingliskeelne character lisaks veel „tegelast“. Tavaks on saanud nimetada selliseid sõnu faux amis ehk petlikud tuttavad, kui neil on sama etümoloogia, ent sarnase vormi ülekandmisel on määravam see, et seda tajutakse sarnasena: samamoodi toimivad ka niiöelda sarnassõnad, mille päritolu eri keeltes ei ole sama, ja tegelikult ka grammatilised jooned või elemendid. Lahknemised kõrvaltähendustes või grammatiliste joonte kasutuses on täiskasvanud õppija jaoks raskesti ületatav takistus, kuid samas võib neid ka rakendada keeleõppe arendamise teenistusse.
Oma doktoritöös uurisin Eesti tudengite kirjutatud hispaaniakeelseid lõputöid eesmärgiga kaardistada, millised on need vead, mis sedavõrd läbimõeldud ja kontrollitud töödesse siiski sisse on jäänud. Samuti tahtsin näha, kas neid vigu võib seostada eksitavalt sarnaste leksikaalsete või grammatiliste vormidega eesti või inglise keeles, mis on valdavalt meie tudengite esimene võõrkeel ja millega kokkupuuted on väga sagedased ja laiaulatuslikud. Leidsingi, et ligi kolmandikku kõigist vigadest võib seostada teiste keelte mõjudega, sõnavaravigade hulgast aga lausa peaaegu pooli. Samuti oli inglise keele mõju suurem kirjutajate emakeele, eesti keele mõjust; esines ka palju juhtumeid, kus eesti ja inglise keel toimisid sarnaselt, ent hispaania keel teisiti. Tuli ka tõdeda, et sedasorti eksitused sõnavara kasutamisel on väga isikupärased ja ei kattu juhtudega, mida käsitlevad õppematerjalid või sõnastikud. Seega on nende vältimiseks hädavajalik, et õppijad oleks sarnasuste ulatusest ja eksimisvõimalustest teadlikud ning oskaksid esiteks otsida paralleele uue keele ja varasemate kogemuste vahel ning teiseks kahtlustada, et kõik sõnad, mis paistavad tuttavad, ei pruugi seda olla, või ei pruugi seda olla alati. Võrdlused keelte vahel ning sarnasuste ja erinevuste üle arutlemine, näiteks läbi petlike tuttavate käsitlemise, arendavad keelelist tundlikkust ja keele üle mõtlemist abstraktsemal, sümboolsemal tasandil, mis on eeldus keele teadlikuks kasutamiseks oma eesmärkide saavutamisel. Samuti õpetavad need oma tähelepanu juhtima ning märkama detaile, nüansse ja erinevusi, mis on väljendusrikkuse seisukohalt asendamatu. Lisaks harjutakse kasutama mitmesuguseid abimaterjale nagu sõnaraamatud või keelekorpused, mis koos tuttavate ja petlikult tuttavate elementide üle arutlemisega aitab tõsta keeleõppijate enesekindlust ja iseseisvust, sest ollakse oma teadmistes kindlad.
Transferring previous knowledge and skills to new situations and contexts can be considered as one of the basic learning mechanisms. As we grow older, we become more and more experienced at anticipating the thoughts and ideas expressed by others, which saves us the trouble of performing a detailed syntactic and semantic analysis of each utterance. Instead, we grasp their meaning rather automatically, based on unconscious expectations created by the topic and situational context at hand. This makes human language comprehension remarkably quick and efficient. On the other hand, it can also cause problems, when what we hear or read does not correspond to our expectations or expresses ideas that are completely new to us. As studies show, we also tend to interpret such situations according to our beliefs, knowledge and experiences, not necessarily based on what they actually convey. When learning foreign languages, we can rely on all sorts of knowledge we have acquired before on language(s), pragmatics, communication and culture; in other words, we can make use of all our life experiences. From a wider perspective, all languages are similar sign systems oriented towards transmitting messages, and they share many traits and functions. This makes it possible to acquire new languages without having to resort to mapping the world all over again as we did as children. Therefore, language learning obeys the so-called Reasonable Entity Principle which presumes that languages have a logical structure and are aimed at making others understand what we intend to communicate. However, what is considered to be logical or what people tend to assume can be different in different cultures. For example, when we see words like televisión or sector in Spanish, we expect them to correspond to the English words “television” and “sector” and more often than not, they indeed do. Still, their uses and full semantic fields can vary. For example, the Spanish word carácter can mean “personality” like karakter in Estonian and “character” in English, but the meaning “letters, numbers and other print symbols” is only shared by the English and Spanish words, and the meaning “figure, part” can only be attributed to the English word. It has become customary to call such words false friends if they share the same etymology, but in fact, when we transfer meaning based on a similar form, what counts is whether we perceive them to be similar, and such perceived similarities can also be extended to grammar and morphology. Divergences in the semantic fields or in the usage of otherwise similar grammatical forms present adult language learners with a substantial obstacle, but can also be turned into a resource that enhances the learning process. In my doctoral dissertation, I studied final BA and MA theses written in Spanish by Estonian students, in order to see what kind of deviations from the grapholect norms can be detected in texts that have been submitted to such a degree of premeditation and control. I also wanted to investigate whether these deviations can be traced to deceptively similar lexical or grammatical forms in Estonian or in English, given that for most our students, English is the first foreign language and offers ample input in very various fields. I found that for a third of all the deviations I identified in these texts, one could indeed establish clear parallels with other languages; for the vocabulary, this proportion was nearly half out of all the deviations detected. Also, the influence of English proved to be greater than that of Estonian, the mother tongue of practically all our students. Likewise, there were several cases where some words or forms worked the same way in Estonian and English, but not in Spanish. Furthermore, it was clear that for the vocabulary, such deviations were very personal and did not overlap much with the false friends included in study materials or dictionaries. The conclusion we can draw from this is that if we want to avoid such deviant usage, we need to be aware of the degree of similarity between the languages we know and learn, and of the kinds of false friends existing between them. We need to grow accustomed to looking for parallels between a new language and our previous experiences, and to suspecting that not all that looks familiar is indeed so, or is so always. Comparisons between languages and discussions on the similarities and dissimilarities, for instance on the example of false friends, help to enhance linguistic perceptivity and thinking about language on a more abstract and symbolic level, which is a prerequisite for using it consciously as a means for achieving our goals. False friends also teach learners to direct their attention and notice details, nuances and divergences. From the point of view of eloquence, expressiveness and precision, this is paramount. Such discussions and tasks also promote the habit of consulting different reference materials, such as various dictionaries or linguistic corpora. This, combined with individual and group practice and discussions, can also contribute to learners’ self sufficiency and self confidence by giving them knowledge they know they can depend on.
Transferring previous knowledge and skills to new situations and contexts can be considered as one of the basic learning mechanisms. As we grow older, we become more and more experienced at anticipating the thoughts and ideas expressed by others, which saves us the trouble of performing a detailed syntactic and semantic analysis of each utterance. Instead, we grasp their meaning rather automatically, based on unconscious expectations created by the topic and situational context at hand. This makes human language comprehension remarkably quick and efficient. On the other hand, it can also cause problems, when what we hear or read does not correspond to our expectations or expresses ideas that are completely new to us. As studies show, we also tend to interpret such situations according to our beliefs, knowledge and experiences, not necessarily based on what they actually convey. When learning foreign languages, we can rely on all sorts of knowledge we have acquired before on language(s), pragmatics, communication and culture; in other words, we can make use of all our life experiences. From a wider perspective, all languages are similar sign systems oriented towards transmitting messages, and they share many traits and functions. This makes it possible to acquire new languages without having to resort to mapping the world all over again as we did as children. Therefore, language learning obeys the so-called Reasonable Entity Principle which presumes that languages have a logical structure and are aimed at making others understand what we intend to communicate. However, what is considered to be logical or what people tend to assume can be different in different cultures. For example, when we see words like televisión or sector in Spanish, we expect them to correspond to the English words “television” and “sector” and more often than not, they indeed do. Still, their uses and full semantic fields can vary. For example, the Spanish word carácter can mean “personality” like karakter in Estonian and “character” in English, but the meaning “letters, numbers and other print symbols” is only shared by the English and Spanish words, and the meaning “figure, part” can only be attributed to the English word. It has become customary to call such words false friends if they share the same etymology, but in fact, when we transfer meaning based on a similar form, what counts is whether we perceive them to be similar, and such perceived similarities can also be extended to grammar and morphology. Divergences in the semantic fields or in the usage of otherwise similar grammatical forms present adult language learners with a substantial obstacle, but can also be turned into a resource that enhances the learning process. In my doctoral dissertation, I studied final BA and MA theses written in Spanish by Estonian students, in order to see what kind of deviations from the grapholect norms can be detected in texts that have been submitted to such a degree of premeditation and control. I also wanted to investigate whether these deviations can be traced to deceptively similar lexical or grammatical forms in Estonian or in English, given that for most our students, English is the first foreign language and offers ample input in very various fields. I found that for a third of all the deviations I identified in these texts, one could indeed establish clear parallels with other languages; for the vocabulary, this proportion was nearly half out of all the deviations detected. Also, the influence of English proved to be greater than that of Estonian, the mother tongue of practically all our students. Likewise, there were several cases where some words or forms worked the same way in Estonian and English, but not in Spanish. Furthermore, it was clear that for the vocabulary, such deviations were very personal and did not overlap much with the false friends included in study materials or dictionaries. The conclusion we can draw from this is that if we want to avoid such deviant usage, we need to be aware of the degree of similarity between the languages we know and learn, and of the kinds of false friends existing between them. We need to grow accustomed to looking for parallels between a new language and our previous experiences, and to suspecting that not all that looks familiar is indeed so, or is so always. Comparisons between languages and discussions on the similarities and dissimilarities, for instance on the example of false friends, help to enhance linguistic perceptivity and thinking about language on a more abstract and symbolic level, which is a prerequisite for using it consciously as a means for achieving our goals. False friends also teach learners to direct their attention and notice details, nuances and divergences. From the point of view of eloquence, expressiveness and precision, this is paramount. Such discussions and tasks also promote the habit of consulting different reference materials, such as various dictionaries or linguistic corpora. This, combined with individual and group practice and discussions, can also contribute to learners’ self sufficiency and self confidence by giving them knowledge they know they can depend on.
Kirjeldus
Märksõnad
mitmekeelsus, võõrkeeleõpetus, keele omandamine, hispaania keel, multilingualism, foreign language teaching, language acquisition, Spanish language