Utilization of the Relationship between German, English and Czech in Teaching German as a Foreign Language

The thesis examines the utilization of linguogenetic (Proto-Indo-European) and cultural- historic (through borrowing) relationships among European languages in instruction and self- study of foreign languages, and as a means of strengthening European unity. As an example serves German, English and Czech, occasionally Latin and Old Greek, in Teaching German as a Foreign Language. The methods are secondary sources research (to present concise history of the languages and their ancestral proto-languages), analysis of linguistic relationships (between 450 lexemes of the German basic vocabulary and their semantic equivalents - translations - in English, Czech, occasionally Latin and Old Greek) and an opinion survey (among 75 respondents about their interest in the historiolinguistic approach and about their belief in this improving the international relations). The results showed that more than a half of the 450 German words are linguogenetically cognate to English and a significant amount of them also to Czech and Latin. On the contrary, borrowings did not play such an important role within the basic wordstock. Most respondents expressed some kind of interest into the historiolinguistic approach and many of them also believed this approach to have a positive impact on intercultural aspects. KEY WORDS..