AN ANALYSIS OF PHONETIC-PHONOLOGICAL AND ORTHOGRAPHIC ERRORS WHEN LEARNING SERBIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

From the perspective of applied linguistics, this paper deals with the acquisition of Serbian as a foreign language by learners whose mother tongues are Lithuanian, Japanese, English and Bulgarian, and who spent one semester at the Centre for Serbian as a Foreign and Second Language at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nis. Working with a specific sample and using the analytical and error analysis method, we aim to identify the most common errors the speakers make at the phonetic-phonological and orthographic level,., the identified linguistic errors are classified into (a) errors occurring under the influence of the mother tongue; (b) errors as the result of the strict rules of the Serbian language system itself – interlingual errors; (c) errors arising from knowledge of another second language; and (d), errors resulting from the insecurity and insufficient acquisition of the Serbian language. By analyzing the sample, we conclude that the greatest number of errors at the phonetic-phonological and orthographic level occurred under the influence of their mother tongue (L1) on Serbian (L2).