Učenje glagolskih oblika u hrvatskome kao stranome jeziku

Based on psycholinguistic, applied linguistic and cognitive theories, this article deals with the morphology of the Croatian verbal system in foreign language learning and second language acquisition.
The data collected is analysed in the main part of the work in order to check the hypotheses. Forty learners from University of Zagreb Summer School of Croatian Language and Culture were tested at the beginning and at the end of their courses. An analysis of the controlled tasks, which looks at the production of three tenses - present, perfect and future - is firstly made. Then, production of the same tenses in learners' essays is analysed. The data is analyzed on the principle of prototypicality.
A number of conclusions has been made. All groups of learners showed the same or very similar tendencies in production of investigated tenses. The results have shown that the production of future and perfect tense is much easier for learners than the production of present tense, that singular forms are better acquired than plural forms, and that errors occur more often in controlled
tasks than in their essays, etc. The data shows that prototypicality of a certain verbal type, its frequency in the Croatian language and the frequency of the particular verb have a great influence on the production of verbal forms. The results have also shown that it is possible to distinguish between learned and acquired knowledge, i. e. learned and acquired verbal forms or verbs.
The purpose of this paper is to learn more about the acquisition and learning of Croatian as a foreign and a second language. Understanding the processes of acquiring and learning is crucial both for teachers and students. In order to accomplish better results, create new and appropriate teaching materials and develop new teaching methods, it is necessary to understand learners and
their interlanguage.