Balcanica 2010 Issue 41, Pages: 7-31
https://doi.org/10.2298/BALC1041007S
Full text ( 201 KB)
Serbian language acquisition in communist Romania
Sorescu-Marinković Annemarie (Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade)
The paper analyzes a unique linguistic phenomenon characterizing Romania’s
western border areas for almost a decade, in the 1980s: the acquisition of
the Serbian language by Romanians in Timişoara under the communist regime,
primarily through exposure to Yugoslav television programmes. It gives a
necessarily sketchy overview of private life under communism, notably the
situation in the Banat province, whose privileged position as a result of
being closest to the West both geographically and culturally was reflected in
the acceptance of pluralism and a critical attitude towards authoritarianism.
Taking into account the literature on foreign language acquisition through
exposure to television programmes, the study is based on a research involving
Romanian natives of Timişoara who, although lacking any formal instruction in
Serbian, intensively and regularly watched Yugoslav television programmes in
the period in question, and on evaluating their competence and proficiency in
Serbian, through language tests, narrative interviews in Romanian and free
conversations in Serbian. The conclusion is that most respondents, despite
the varying degree of proficiency in Serbian depending on their active use of
the language before and after 1989, showed a strong pragmatic competence,
which appears to contradict the author’s initial hypothesis.
Keywords: TV foreign language acquisition, Serbian language, Romania, Timişoara, communism