Although teachers' ability to use English for academic purposes is one of the crucial factors affecting the quality of English-medium instruction (EMI), teacher language development has received ...rather little attention. The current study helps to address this gap by analysing a language development programme for teachers in EMI (LD for EMI) in the Croatian context, and offering recommendations for programme development. Drawing on data collected from three sources over a three-year period – teacher surveys on satisfaction with LD for EMI (n = 60), self-reflection tools (n = 60) and classroom observation forms (n = 1140) – we examine the programme's strengths, limitations, and the teachers' learning experiences and understanding. The key benefits of the programme are opportunities to practice teaching in English, provision of corrective feedback and engagement in self-reflection. The main limitations are teaching and learning in mixed-level classes, making it difficult to address different teachers' needs and conceptualise the language learning outcomes. As for the teachers' learning, they have developed awareness that teachers with diminished language competence are likely to encounter difficulties and are susceptible to lowered self-esteem. The findings corroborate that a fundamental requirement for EMI is high academic English proficiency, attainable through continued language training.
The paper presents the results of a study that aims to investigate Fiuman speakers’ attitudes and perceptions in relation to the maintenance of the Fiuman dialect – the regional minority Romance ...language spoken in the Croatian city of Rijeka and its surroundings – with a particular focus on age, gender and education level, as individual factors that might determine the processes of language maintenance and shift. A questionnaire enquiring into these issues was distributed to Fiuman speakers of different ages, genders and education levels; the participants’ language biographies and self–assessed proficiency in Fiuman were also examined by the questionnaire. The results show that age and, to a lesser extent, gender and education level predict Fiuman speakers’ self–perceived engagement with, attitudes towards and perceptions of Fiuman maintenance. More precisely, it was shown that Fiuman speakers’ self–perceived engagement with Fiuman maintenance and their positive attitudes towards it rise with age and education level. In addition, Fiuman speakers’ positive perceptions of Fiuman maintenance efforts rise with age and are more characteristic of women than of men. The results provide an insight into the present-day status of the Fiuman dialect, as seen through its speakers’ lenses, and indicate both language maintenance and language shift tendencies.
Cilj je ove studije ispitati motivaciju studenata koji studiraju na engleskome jeziku (EJVIN-
studenti) za odabir studijskoga programa na engleskome jeziku i nedostatak iste kod studenata
koji ...studiraju na hrvatskome jeziku (HJVIN-studenti). Cilj je također po prvi put u Republici
Hrvatskoj ispitati očekivanja obiju skupina studenata vezana uz engleski jezični napredak
zahvaljujući studiju te ispunjenje tih očekivanja. Motivacija i očekivanja ispitani su na početku
preddiplomskoga studijskog programa na Ekonomskome fakultetu Sveučilišta u Rijeci, a
ispunjenje očekivanja na kraju. Podatci su prikupljeni upitnikom i intervjuima provedenima
s EJVIN- i HJVIN-studentima prve i treće godine preddiplomskoga studija. Rezultati dobiveni
intervjuima pokazuju da su EJVIN-studenti motivirani za odabir studijskoga programa
na engleskome jeziku željom da poboljšaju svoje engleske jezične vještine te da nastave studij
i izgrade karijeru u inozemstvu, dok se HJVIN-studenti ne odlučuju za te studijske programe
zbog drugačijih interesa, kao i zbog potencijalnih jezičnih izazova. Obje skupine studenata na
početku studija smatraju da će se njihovo znanje engleskoga jezika zahvaljujući studiju poboljšati.
Studenti treće godine potvrđuju ta očekivanja. Dok HJVIN-studenti prvenstveno opisuju
napredak u domeni stručnoga vokabulara, EJVIN-studenti ističu i razvijenije opće jezične vještine
i veće samopouzdanje u uporabi engleskoga jezika. Rezultati studije upućuju na potrebu,
kako HJVIN- tako i EJVIN-studenata, za kolegijima kojima je fokus sam engleski jezik.
The introduction of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has changed higher education enormously in many European countries. This development is increasingly encapsulated under the term ...Englishization, that is, the increasing dispersion of English as a means of communication in non-Anglophone contexts. Englishization is not undisputed: legal challenges have arisen in several countries. Nor is it uniform; universities across Europe embrace Englishization, but they do so in their own way. In this volume, authors from 15 European countries present analyses from a range of perspectives coalescing around core concerns: the quality of education, cultural identity, inequality of opportunities and access, questions of justice and democracy, and internationalization and language policy. This book will appeal to researchers in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, educational sciences, and political science, as well as policy makers and people with a concern about the direction of higher education.
The use of English to teach academic subjects at university level has been on the increase in the past years, attracting considerable research attention. Among the most pressing issues is that of the ...language competences required to teach and learn through English. Accordingly, EMI studies have investigated, among other topics, the use of language in the classroom, focusing on the features of lecturers’ spoken production in English. Although the use of English is assumed in EMI, insights into classroom practices indicate that lecturers and students engage in translanguaging between English and other languages. The goal of this paper is to investigate whether lecturers pursue a language policy in class, why they confine themselves to English and when they exploit their multilingual resources, allowing or even prompting students to do the same. Drawing data from interviews with thirty EMI lecturers from five European countries (Croatia, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands), the lecturers’ implicit or explicit language policies will be investigated, inquiring into the motives for the adoption of an English-only approach or the flexible use of other languages. Subsequently, classroom discourse practices will be examined focusing on translanguaging in order to verify whether reported language policies and practices correspond to observable behaviour. The data for the study of language use in class is taken from the TAEC Corpus, consisting of thirty transcribed EMI lectures collected within the five countries under study. We will discuss the complexity of the rationale behind English-only language choices and pluralistic language use, arguing that multilingual-oriented EMI policies should not be normed top-down but emerge from communication needs in the classroom.
This paper reports the results of a study that investigates changes in the self-reported frequency of use of the Fiuman dialect, a regional minority Romance language spoken in the Croatian city of ...Rijeka and its surroundings, with respect to its hearing, speaking, reading, and writing both in the present and the past. The data was collected by means of a questionnaire containing closed and open-ended questions administered to 244 Fiuman speakers, between the ages of 14 and 89 years old. The results show a decrease in the spoken use of Fiuman today in comparison to the past, but also an increase in its written use, among younger speakers. The participants list numerous reasons for the decrease in spoken use, the main ones being related to a reduction in the number of Fiuman speakers and demographic changes in the city. The increase in written use relates primarily to communication on social networks, in text messaging and via e-mail, as well as to communication at work. The results point to the importance of modern technology and the new media for the maintenance of minority languages.
Izazovi provedbe politike višejezičnosti u Hrvatskoj Bratulić, Ana; Smiljanić, Siniša; Margić, Branka Drljača ...
Rasprave Instituta za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje,
07/2017, Volume:
43, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
U radu se ispituju izazovi provedbe politike višejezičnosti u hrvatskome odgojno-obrazovnom sustavu i mogući načini njihova rješavanja. U tu je svrhu održana skupna rasprava (n = 17) i individualni ...polustrukturirani intervjui (n = 10) s predstavnicima ustanova na području odgoja i obrazovanja. Ispitanici su identificirali izazove i probleme vezane uz status i zastupljenost zavičajnih idioma u nastavi hrvatskoga jezika, pristup učenicima koji ne(dovoljno) poznaju hrvatski jezik, status i zastupljenost drugih stranih jezika u odnosu na engleski te obrazovanje pripadnika nacionalnih manjina na vlastitu jeziku i pismu. Također, kako bi se na izazove odgovorilo na primjeren način, ispitanici su predložili niz mjera u čiju bi se provedbu trebali uključiti svi sudionici odgojno-obrazovnoga sustava.
The paper discusses the category of necessity in borrowing, primarily from English, examining whether (English) loanwords can really be classed as either necessary or unnecessary. Employing the ...example of a recent attempt (Prcic 2005) to classify loanwords of English origin by how justified it is to use them in the recipient language, the author aims to show such classifications to be imprecise and oversimplified. The primary goal of the paper is to give and analyse the reasons for using loanwords. It argues that the speakers are motivated to use loanwords by an array of linguistic and socio-psychological needs and desires -- from the need to fill a lexical gap, to the desire to express themselves economically, precisely and creatively, to the need to express their subcultural identity through the use of borrowings. The author concludes that both loanwords and their native equivalents make up what Bourdieu (1991) terms linguistic capital, and that lexical choice depends on the nature of linguistic markets. Thus the loanword will fare better on one market, and its native equivalent on another. The parallel use of loanwords and their native equivalents greatly enhances the layered nature of language use -- that is, the semantic, stylistic, and functional diversification of language. Adapted from the source document
This paper aims to identify the challenges of the implementation of the policy of multilingualism in the Croatian educational system and ways in which they can be addressed. With this purpose, a ...focus group discussion (n = 17) and individual semi-structured interviews (n = 10) with representatives of educational and childcare institutions were conducted. The participants identified challenges and problems related to the status and inclusion of local idioms in the Croatian language curriculum/classes, the approach to students who are not proficient in the Croatian language, the status of other foreign languages with respect to English, and education of the members of national minorities in their native languages. In order to properly address the identified challenges, the participants proposed a number of measures, the adoption of which should involve all participants in the educational system.
The paper presents the results of a study that aims to investigate Fiuman speakers' attitudes and perceptions in relation to the maintenance of the Fiuman dialect-the regional minority Romance ...language spoken in the Croatian city of Rijeka and its surroundings-with a particular focus on age, gender and education level, as individual factors that might determine the processes of language maintenance and shift. A questionnaire enquiring into these issues was distributed to Fiuman speakers of different ages, genders and education levels; the participants' language biographies and self-assessed proficiency in Fiuman were also examined by the questionnaire. The results show that age and, to a lesser extent, gender and education level predict Fiuman speakers' self-perceived engagement with, attitudes towards and perceptions of Fiuman maintenance. More precisely, it was shown that Fiuman speakers' self-perceived engagement with Fiuman maintenance and their positive attitudes towards it rise with age and education level. In addition, Fiuman speakers' positive perceptions of Fiuman maintenance efforts rise with age and are more characteristic of women than of men. The results provide an insight into the present-day status of the Fiuman dialect, as seen through its speakers' lenses, and indicate both language maintenance and language shift tendencies. U radu su predstavljeni rezultati istrazivanja stavova i percepcija govornika fijumanskoga o ocuvanju toga dijalekta-autohtonoga manjinskog romanskog idioma kojim se govori u Rijeci i okolici. Posebna je pozornost usmjerena dobi, spolu i stupnju obrazovanja govornika kao individualnim cimbenicima koji mogu utjecati na ocuvanje ili napustanje jezika. Ocuvanje jezika odnosi se na situacije u kojima se manjinski jezik rabi u nekim ili svim zivotnim domenama, dok sve cesca uporaba dominantnoga ili vecinskoga jezika naustrb manjinskoga vodi do njegova napustanja (Pauwels 2004). Kao mjerni instrument posluzio je upitnik kojim su se ispitivali stavovi i percepcije o fijumanskome te jezicna biografija i razina poznavanja fijumanskoga govornika razlicite dobi, spola i stupnja obrazovanja. Rezultati pokazuju da su dob i u manjoj mjeri spol i stupanj obrazovanja prediktori samoiskazane ukljucenosti govornika fijumanskoga u njegovo ocuvanje, njihovih stavova prema ocuvanju te percepcija ocuvanja. Drugim rijecima, pokazalo se da samoiskazana ukljucenost govornika fijumanskoga u ocuvanje toga dijalekta i njihovi pozitivni stavovi prema tome rastu s dobi i visim stupnjem obrazovanja. S porastom dobi rastu i pozitivne percepcije napora koji se ulazu u ocuvanje fijumanskoga te su te percepcije izrazenije kod zena nego kod muskaraca. Rezultati istrazivanja daju uvid u trenutni polozaj fijumanskoga dijalekta, onako kako ga vide njegovi govornici, te upucuju istovremeno na tendenciju ocuvanjajezika i tendenciju njegova napustanja. Ocuvanju fijumanskoga doprinijelo bi podizanje svijesti o vaznosti njegova ocuvanja, visejezicnosti, njegovanja manjinskih kultura i jezika te jezicne i kulturalne raznolikosti opcenito, i to od najranije dobi i najnize razine obrazovanja. Institucije talijanske nacionalne manjine u Rijeci, kao sto su vrtici, skole, kazaliste i mediji, trebale bi kontinuirano nuditi sadrzaje i aktivnosti na fijumanskome i u njih ukljucivati sve clanove zajednice. Keywords: Fiuman dialect, attitudes, perceptions, language maintenance, language shift Kljucne rijeci: fijumanski dijalekt, stavovi, percepcije, ocuvanje jezika, napustanje jezika
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