engleski

How important is English to Croatian pre-service primary and preschool teachers not majoring in English?

The paper presents a small scale study conducted with 151 university students: (1) pre-service primary and preschool teachers not majoring in English (the experimental group), and (2) pre-service primary school English teachers (the control group). Since a previous study (Martinović & Poljaković, 2010) confirmed the positive attitudes to English in the case of Croatian university students, similar results were expected in this study. Using a questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions, the authors aimed to gain insight into the Croatian university students' attitudes to English and their perceived importance of proficiency in English. An additional aim was to establish possible correlations between the participants’ attitudes and exposure to and proficiency in English and other foreign languages, their proficiency in EFL, and their overall academic achievement. Considering English as a global language and its predominance in the world, also in Croatia, the authors hypothesized significant exposure to the given language and high proficiency in it for both groups. Taking into account that one group included pre-service primary school English teachers, it was assumed that their exposure to English, not only within studies but also beyond them, would be greater, their attitudes to English would be more positive, and they would consider proficiency in English to be more important compared to the results in the other group.

exposure to EFL, EFL proficiency, attitudes

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