Naslov
“Jamaican and Irish for fun, British to show off”: Attitudes of Croatian university students of TEFL to English language varieties

Autori
Drljača Margić, Branka ; Širola, Dorjana

Izvornik
English Today (0266-0784) 30 (2014), 3; 48-53

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
English native varieties ; English outer circle non-native varieties ; EIL/ELF ; language attitudes ; Croatia

Sažetak
This study investigates the attitudes of Croatian university students of TEFL towards native and outer circle non-native English varieties, as well as towards EIL/ELF. The results show that attitudes towards outer circle non-native varieties are quite homogeneous: they are mostly seen as “broken, ” “incorrect, ” and “informal, ” but also “exotic.” By contrast, attitudes towards native varieties exhibit a high level of heterogeneity: British and, to a lesser extent, US English are perceived as “standard” and “correct”, whereas Australian and Irish English are attributed some of the same characteristics as outer circle non-native varieties, such as “exotic.” Furthermore, British and American English clearly differ in terms of perceived prestige, formality and sophistication, American English consistently ranking much lower. EIL is seen as a “simple” and “comprehensible” variety that is nevertheless perceived as “standard” and “correct”, in fact more “correct” than all native varieties except British English. Furthermore, EIL joins British and American English among the top three varieties that the respondents would most like to know and the top three that they consider most useful to know, even coming ahead of British English in the latter list. Outer circle non- native varieties are hardly mentioned in either context.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

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