LEARNING AND TEACHING MORE FOREIGN LANGUAGES

The purpose of the presented paper is to share our team's opinions and findings made during our research into the issue of learning and teaching the second (or third) foreign language. English is currently in the position of the foreign language No. 1 in the Czech Republic, Czech school-children start learning this language at elementary school or even earlier. It can be obviously expected that during the process of learning further foreign languages, not only Czech, the mother tongue, but also English, the first foreign language, are reflected in performances given in other foreign languages. This impact occurs in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar forms and syntactic structures. One issue which is focused on in the presented text is that of errors made by learners of the German language due to their previously acquired knowledge of their first foreign language. The other issue is the importance of pre-service foreign language teachers' awareness of the phenomenon of language interference in their own process of learning further foreign languages and in their beginning teaching practice. The results of quantitative and qualitative research carried out at the Faculty of Education of the University of Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic) are presented. Undergraduate teachers of English and German were involved in the research activities. Findings made during the research will be prospectively used by them, which can make their learning process improved and their future teaching practice successful. (C) 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK