Young Croatian Heritage Language Learners’ Reception of the Fairy Tale “Reygoch”
Young Croatian Heritage Language Learners’ Reception of the Fairy Tale “Reygoch”

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the habits and attitudes of young Croatian heritage language learners (CHLLs) attending the American International School of Zagreb (AISZ) towards reading in general and towards reading fairy tales in Croatian and English. More specifically, their reception of the fairy tale “Reygoch” by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić is considered. Although mostly bilingual, the CHLLs in this study follow the curriculum in the English language, and they attend Croatian Language and Literature classes. The curriculum for this subject, adapted to AISZ students’ needs, introduces Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić in Croatian in the 4th grade. The results show that works of Brlić-Mažuranić can be offered for reading to young CHLLs, taking into consideration their specific reception. They also reveal the level of literary reading skills and describe the differences between students. Possible difficulties which students encounter in reading an authentic text, challenging at various levels of reading a literary text, are explained. Finally, the authors offer suggestions to help avoid such difficulties or at least to lessen them.

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