This study investigates grapheme encoding in Croatian as a second
language among Farsi speakers after twenty hours of learning. Three
phases of encoding tasks were administered: 1) dictation of individual
phonemes, 2) dictation of words beginning with those phonemes, and 3)
dictation of simple sentences with words from the previous phase.
Respondents used “-” to denote unencoded items. Eleven Afghan
respondents at the beginner level (A1 according to CEFRL), aged 18 to
63, were sampled conveniently. The study aims to assess: a) accuracy in
encoding individual graphemes and words, b) problematic graphemes, and
c) accuracy in encoding complete words. The results will illuminate
initial decoding specifics for this group, confronting the added
complexity of differing graphic systems between L1 and L2. Furthermore,
implications for Croatian orthography acquisition as L2 will be
discussed. Analysis of encoding by Farsi-speaking Croatian learners
showed overall success with sentences but difficulty with individual
graphemes, possibly due to reliance on lexical rather than phonological
knowledge. Notably, struggles were observed with “nj,” unlike with
“c” as seen previously. This might be because “nj” is less common in
Croatian, especially early on. Transfer errors from Farsi, like omitting
short vowels, were evident. Instruction for Farsi learners should focus
on specific grapheme errors such as “nj,” “ć,” “dž,” and “đ,” as
well as consonant clusters and short vowel encoding in Croatian.