English And German From Czech Students´ Point Of View

Abstract

The text presents findings from a long-term kind of research carried out at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic). Reflecting the educational policy of the European Union, teacher trainers from the Department of German English Language and Literature and the Department of English Language and Literature make efforts to improve their ways of training future teachers of German and English. To make their learners´ process of learning more foreign languages more effective, teachers should know how their learners really feel about learning more languages. This study focused on two essential research questions: “What are Czech native speakers´ points of view concerning the compulsory learning of more foreign languages?” and “Are Czech learners aware of similarities and differences occurring in the linguistic systems of English and German?” The text presents and compares the opinions expressed by two groups of respondents in a questionnaire survey. The research has revealed that Czech learners of foreign languages are aware of problematic spheres of foreign language learning, they think about methods convenient for their learning process. However, they are not properly trained in a systematic way to use their already acquired linguistic knowledge and strategies when learning further foreign languages.