A learner’s grammar for Estonian: Insights from typological research

Abstract

This paper discusses the need for a modern Estonian reference grammar for learners and lays the basic groundwork for creating one. The current abundance of materials for teaching Estonian as a foreign language and recent advancements in both areal-typological linguistics and in the study of acquisition of Estonian contribute to conceptualizing a new type of grammar, and further improving the teaching and learning of Estonian. Modern language instruction orients to proficiency as the ability to use language in real life. We contend that this goal, combined with the availability of language technology and increased mobility of people increases the demands on effective teaching of language structure. Research has shown that the main difficulties for learners of Estonian concern morphology and morphosyntax. We suggest that including an areal-typological perspective on categories and concepts in describing and explaining the structure of Estonian may help learners in these areas.