engleski

Multilingualism under the monolingual surface: the case of Croatia

According to Census 2011 data, the Republic of Croatia is perceived as a monolingual country with over 95% of its inhabitants being L1 speakers of the official, Croatian language. This paper attempts to answer the paradoxical question whether such linguistic context can contribute to our understanding of multilingualism. In order to answer this question, two assumptions are made. First, specifities of living in a rather small and monolingual society will foster foreign language learning (FLL). Second, Croatian society is only apparently monolingual, since 190.000 Croatian inhabitants speak a language other than Croatian as their mother tongue. To prove the assumptions, series of data and research findings will be presented: a) findings from the 1990’s longitudinal project of early foreign language learning (c.f. Vilke 1999, Vilke & Vrhovac 1995, Vrhovac et al 2019) which resulted with a mandatory FLL from the 1st grade of primary school ; b) data on current situation with FLL and language competences of children and young adults in Croatia (c.f. Mihaljević-Djigunović 2017, 2016, 2015, Radišić 2013, Cindrić 2019, Andraka & Narančić Kovač 2019) ; c) research findings on bilingual speakers (LA Italian, Romani, Hungarian, Albanian & LB Croatian), language diversity and the maintenance of minority languages (Deželjin 2019, Granić 2016, Karabin & Cergol Kovačević 2019, Letica Krevelj 2020, 2016, Poropat Jeletić, Moscarda Mirković & Bortoletto 2020, Poropat Jeletić 2018a, 2018 b, Turza Bogdan & Cvikić 2020, 2019) ; d) evidence from research on Croatian as a L2 (Bašić 2015, Cvikić 2015, Dobravac, 2011, Grgić 2018, Gulešić Machata 2012, Jelaska 2015, Matovac & Udier 2018, Novak Milić & Čilaš Mikulić 2013, Ordulj 2018) ; e) research findings on bidialectism of Croatian speakers, since most of them are speakers of vernacular that considerably differs from the standard Croatian language (cf. Aladrović Slovaček 2019, Pavličević-Franić 2005, Gudelj 2019). The presented studies prove that under the monolingual surface, there is a vibrant multilingual society. Moreover, the data give a valuable insight how thorough investigation of a small language and rather linguistically homogenous society can contribute to our understanding of the complex nature of multilingualism.

multilinguism, foreign language learning, Croatia

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