Space, Time and Motion in Czech as a Second Language

Abstract

The introductory study deals with two main topics that are relevant to the given special issue: a) changes which the research in the study of the conceptualisation of motion events, space and time and the ways and means of their expression in language in general and in specific individual languages has introduced into the study of language acquisition — both first and second/foreign, and the characteristics of such research. In addition to the global context, it also goes over the domestic Czech linguistic tradition of research in this field and contemporary Czech studies; b) the current state and needs of teaching Czech as a foreign language and its resources for more extensive empirically based research, especially the acquisition corpora resource. For the first subtopic, the study provides an overview of the development of interest in teaching Czech as a foreign language abroad and at home. In both areas, there is a growing interest in teaching Czech or the need to teach it to speakers whose first language is a Slavic one, as well as typologically and distantly related languages (Chinese, Korean, Arabic, etc.). It is therefore necessary to pay increased attention to research into the processes of acquisition of Czech by speakers of these languages and its teaching. In connection with the second subtopic, the study provides an overview of the Czech acquisition corpora resources (including learner corpora), which are necessary for more extensive empirical research in this area.

Keywords

• acquisition / learner corpus
• czech as a second language
• motion event
• semantic typology