engleski

English language diversity in Croatian grammar schools: A study on EFL teachers and students’ familiarity with and tolerance of English language varieties

The authors of the present paper conducted the first investigation into Croatian grammar school EFL teachers and students’ familiarity with different English language varieties, as well as the teachers’ inclination to familiarise their students with them. They also enquired into their tolerance of features that do not conform to native speaker norms as normatively accepted in English as an international language. The sample comprised 17 teachers and 122 students, who were asked to fill in a questionnaire. Findings of the study suggest that teachers are far more familiar with native, primarily American and British, than non-native varieties, and familiarise their students accordingly. In addition, they believe that only native varieties should be taught about to a greater extent. Students have rarely been exposed to varieties of English (apart from American and British) ; nevertheless, they are willing to learn (more) about them, but outside the classroom. Regarding English for international communication, 88% of teachers hold that it should be based on American and/or British English, and do not tolerate the use of morphosyntax which does not correspond to native speaker norms. Students, on the other hand, are split evenly when it comes to tolerating morphosyntactic features such as she look or informations.

native English varieties ; non-native English varieties ; English language teaching

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