ALTERNATIVNI POSTUPCI PRILIKOM UČENJA PREZENTA U NASTAVI SRPSKOG KAO STRANOG JEZIKA

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to consider alternative procedures when learning the present tense at the beginner level of learning Serbian as a foreign language. Practice shows that foreigners who learn Serbian al level A1 have great difficulties in mastering the way the present tense is formed, both due to a lack of clear rules and due to a large number of suffixes. For example, in the formation of the 3rd person plural in the present tense, there are as many as three suffixes (-e, -u, -ju) and there is no possibility of free choice. According to a tacit rule, the present tense is studied first, and then all the other verb forms in textbooks for learning Serbian. However, the authors of this paper believe that learning the present tense should be preceded by learning imperative forms, because there is a direct link between the way the 3rd person plural in the present tense and the (second person singular form of the) imperative are generated. The imperative is a verb form that students encounter very often during their stay in the Republic of Serbia, as well as at the very beginning of the course when getting acquainted with the instructive part of the textbook (circle, underline, listen, say, etc.). In that way, the imperative becomes a form that foreigners gladly use ”for survival” in real life circumstances. In other words, knowledge of this verb form helps students find the right way to perform everyday activities until they develop basic language competencies. In this paper, the authors try to show how a changed order of studying verb forms (imperative-present) can help in mastering the formation and use of the present tense more efficiently, highlighting two very useful rules and applying them to all the verbs provided by the curricula and textbooks at the beginner level of learning Serbian. In the control group, verb tenses were studied in the order in which they were presented in the textbooks (present-imperative). In the experimental group, the order of the processed content was different (imperative-present). The results of the study showed that the students in the experimental group were able to generate imperative and present verb forms almost without any mistakes, while the success of the students in the control group varied depending on the task.