Teel sihtkeelepärase keelekasutuse poole: veneja soomekeelsete eesti keele õppijate kirjaliku keelekasutuse dünaamika A2- ja B1-tasemel
Towards target-like language use: Russian and Finnish learners’ dynamics of written Estonian on A2- and B1-level

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the Russian and Finnish learners’ use of written Estonian on the proficiency levels A2 and B1. Russian learners acquired Estonian as a second language in Estonia, Finnish learners learned Estonian as a foreign language in Finland. The aim of the study is to find out the main characteristics of learner language development from A2 to B1 level of both of the learner groups and also shed light on the first language influence and on the impact of language environment. The study is based on the analysis of the most frequent morpho-syntactical patterns in the texts of Estonian Interlanguage Corpus. Target language use of the two learners’ groups is compared with each other and with the use of native Estonians. The data consists of the actively used trigrams: 203 trigrams of Russian and 227 of Finnish learners on the A2-level, and 4363 of Russian and 1132 of Finnish learners on the B1-level. The results of the study show that the language use of the two learner groups develops from A2 to B1 level similarly in many ways. However, in the texts of Russian learners the total amount of patterns, as well as the amount of statistically relevant patterns, grow rapidly on the level B1. At the same time the variety of the pattern groups and vocabulary exhibit less expansion. In the texts of Finnish learners the percentage of statistically relevant patterns grows steadily, but at the same time the extensive development of vocabulary on the basis of smaller amount of patterns can be detected. Thus, from the A2 to B1 level, the acquisition of closely related target language outside language environment is characterized mainly by the development of vocabulary while in the acquisition of different target language in language environment the main characteristic is extensive development of morphosyntax.

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