The general field of interest for this study is the Swedish public’s level of awareness of non-literal and figurative language, such as idioms and metaphors, in English. The English language can be considered to be evolving into Sweden’s second language, since it is present in so much more than school, for example, on television, computers and radio. This study aims to gain an insight into the degree of understanding of common idiomatic expressions in popular English song lyrics by native Swedish speakers. University students were chosen as the sample group and twelve of them were asked to explain their understanding of selected English idioms which occur in songs with which they were likely to recognize. The results have then been analyzed and it was possible to establish the degrees of understanding, misunderstanding and failure to understand. Firstly, the participants have explained the expression out of context, and secondly they were asked to explain it in the context of the song. This was to see whether the expressions appear to have been easier to understand out of context or in context. Earlier research show difficulties in defining the term idiom, and in this survey the term idiomatic expression has been used and defined as a way of speaking or writing that does not make any literal sense, even though the expressions are used all the time and people familiar with the language generally recognize them and understand their meaning. Earlier research has facilitated the analysis by the use of terms, theories and definitions on various ways of understanding metaphors, metonymy and idioms, and how these might, or might not, differ between Swedish and English. The results of this survey show that most of the expressions appear to have been easier to explain and understand when seen and heard in the context of the song. Although, some expressions appear to have been very alien to the participants, which has resulted in misunderstandings and failure to understand both in and out of context of the song lyrics in question.

This diploma thesis deals with the grammar curriculum of Russian language in the Czech teaching resources for B1 level and compares it with the requirements of the Standard for teaching Russian as a foreign language. The theoretical part of the thesis defines terms related to grammar; it describes and compares Czech and Russian curriculum documents and concerns with the Russian grammar teaching in the communicative approach. The last chapter of this part discusses the role of a teaching resource in the teaching process, the selection of such a resource and the description of individual resources for B1 level. The practical part presents the results of the content analysis of the teaching resources with respect to their minimum required grammar, which is first described individually for each resource and then compared with the requirements of the Standard for teaching Russian as a foreign language. Afterwards, the results are clearly summarized. KEY WORDS: minimum required grammar, morphology, syntax, teaching grammar, positive transfer, negative transfer, analysis

Apprendre une nouvelle langue signifie exploiter, plus ou moins consciemment,l’espace de la proximité du système linguistique cible avec d’autres langues. Cette proximité encourage les transferts entre les systèmes linguistiques, qui acquièrent une valeur positive ou négative à l’intérieur de l’interlangue vue comme le troisième système linguistique développé par l’apprenant, différent de la langue source et de la langue cible. Nous nous intéressons à ces transferts et à l’influence que ceux-ci exercent sur l’interlangue, dans le cas des apprenants roumains de FLE, étudiant aussi l’italien et l’espagnol. L’analyse des données nous permet de rendre compte du rapport qui s’établit entre la conformité avec la norme et la complexité de l’interlangue et aussi de déterminer le rôle des transferts linguistiques positifs et négatifs par rapport à ces deux dimensions de l’interlangue (la complexité et la conformité) / Learning a new language means making use, more or less consciously, of the sphere ofproximity between the target linguistic system and the other languages. This proximitystimulates some transfers between the linguistic systems, thus acquiring either a positive or anegative value within interlanguage. This one is considered the third language system developedby the learner, being different from the source language and the target language. We focus onthese transfers and on their influence over interlanguage, in the case of the Romanian learnersstudying French as a foreign language, but also Italian and Spanish.The data analysis enables us, on the one hand, to give an account of the connectionexisting between the conformity to the norm and the complexity of interlanguage and, on theother hand, to ascertain the role of both positive and negative linguistic transfers against thesetwo dimensions of interlanguage (the complexity and the conformity) / A învăţa o nouă limbă înseamnă a exploata, în mod mai mult sau mai puţin conştient,spaţiul proximităţii sistemului lingvistic ţintă cu alte limbi. Această proximitate încurajeazătransferurile între sistemele lingvistice, care capătă o valoare pozitivă sau negativă în interiorulunei interlangue vazută ca fiind al treilea sistem lingvistic dezvoltat de un elev, diferit de limbasursă şi de limba ţintă. Suntem interesaţi de analiza acestor transferuri şi de influenţa pe careacestea o exercită asupra acestei interlangue, în cazul elevilor români care studiază FLE şiitaliana sau spanilola.Analiza datelor ne permite să explicăm raportul care se stabileşte între conformitatea cunorma şi complexitatea limbii elevului şi să determinăm rolul transferurilor lingvistice pozitive şinegative în raport cu aceste două dimensiuni ale unei interlangue (complexitatea şiconformitatea)

This thesis deals with Ukrainian-Czech interference at the syntactical level. The theoretical section deals with the terms we work with, defines both contrastive and error analyses, and focuses on syntactic differences between Ukrainian and Czech. The central part of this section focuses on different valencies for Czech and Ukrainian verbs. The practical section consist of an experiment in which we observe the error rate of Ukrainian students when using Czech verbs that have a different valency in Ukrainian. It also includes the differential valency dictionary of Czech and Ukrainian verbs, which is the result of this thesis. Key words: interference, positive transfer, negative transfer, contrastive analysis, error analysis, valency, verb pattern, syntax, Czech, Ukrainian, vocabulary

The thesis deals with second language acquisition (SLA) of Czech in Russian and English students. It presents the main theories of SLA (generative and cognitive approaches) and compares them to the results of author's research into L2 acquisition of Czech morphology and syntax in speakers of two typologically and structurally different mothertongues. It shows that language transfer plays an important role in SLA and that some of the generative assumptions about SLA that are claimed to apply universally cannot be proven for Czech.

Language adaptation of foreigners is always accompanied by a number of problems connected to the acquisition and the use of the language which becomes the primary communicative tool in the new environment. Ignoring and underestimating these problems typical of a particular language community can result in a failure to master the target language and consequently in the unsuccessful integration in the new society. This thesis is aimed at specific problems in the area of morphosyntax and phonetics, characteristic of Russian-speaking students of Czech. At the same time, it warns about the danger of overestimating positive transfer from Russian and emphasizes the necessity of using special didactic approach in teaching this group of foreign-language speakers. The analysis of the chosen language phenomena is based on the data from the Database of the voice recordings of spoken Czech by native speakers of Russian and the Database of language mistakes in Czech made by speakers whose native language is another Slavic language, which were created, among others, for the purpose of this thesis. The attention is specifically focused on the use of the reflexive se/si, forms of the auxiliary verb to be in the past tense, short forms of personal pronouns in spoken and written production of Russian-speaking...