Why do Slovak Speakers Experience Difficulties in Understanding and Using French Articles?

Abstract

The author of the following article aims to tackle, principally from a linguistic point of view, the reason for the difficulty surrounding the use of French articles by Slovak speakers. More precisely, the author focuses on the developmental, pragmatic, and stylistic functions that the articles fulfil in written and oral discourse. They suggest that the absence of articles in Slovak grammar is not the one and only reason why learners of French whose mother tongue is Slovak may experience difficulties employing these articles. The root of the issue in fact proves to be much more complex and can be attributed to three areas of difficulty which are experienced simultaneously. It is more a question of the difficulty associated with the grammatical and referential development of nouns in French as well as the stylistic and pragmatic nuance affiliated with articles that arises in the construction of the speaker’s communicative intention. These theoretical observations are confirmed through the learning process of French as well as through the process of translation.