Language Biographies of two Croatian Lecturers: Comparison of Foreign Language Acquisition

Foreign language acquisition research based on language biographies is a relatively new research method. A new explicit form was created in the mid-nineties of the last century, whereas the interest in researching personal experience of language and language acquisition has existed even earlier, as for instance can be seen in Obler, L.; Fein, D. (1988): The exceptional brain. Language biographies can basically be described as biographical method established in social sciences, where war biographies and women's biographies are generally known as research methods to study and describe certain topics. Language biographies are used to portray personal experiences on the topic of language acquisition and language repertoire based on interviews and/or questionnaires. Language acquisition and language usage differ from person to person, depending on their social, historically-biographical surrounding, heavily depending on their personal living situation. Languages are linked to certain biographical situations, i.e. family relations and/or other places where people get in contact with language(s) (see: Krumm: 18). Moreover, language acquisition is not a linear process; social and situational influences as well as personal attitudes and individual language contacts have a big impact on it, thus it is a necessity to focus research on individual language identity concepts. Inspired by an article under the title „Als Kind, im Ausland oder nie“ [1] (As child, abroad or never) written by Heinrich Stalg this contribution focuses on the analysis of second/foreign language acquisition of two Croatian lecturers at the University of Rijeka based on differences in their language biographies. The author of the above mentioned article states that a foreign language is learned as child, abroad or never, striking me as a central question which is being followed-up in the course of the research and analysis of the two language biographies. As a result, the hypothesis of Stalg that a language is learned “as child, abroad or never” should be confirmed or destroyed based on analysis of the language biographies of the two lecturers which were recorded in a questionnaire and an additional interview. This study is not meant to be holistic and representative, it is merely an insight into two different language biographies, varying in the way the second/foreign language was acquired based on different life situations, analyzed and described from the point of view of the two interviewees. Furthermore, the study concentrates on acquisition of German as a second/foreign language and other foreign languages are mentioned but not taken into consideration in the analysis.[1] Stalg, H., Handbuch für ausländische Studienbewerber , Kap. X, Manuskrip