Der Beitrag untersucht die Argumentationslinien der "English only" Sprachenpolitik und ... more Der Beitrag untersucht die Argumentationslinien der "English only" Sprachenpolitik und konfrontiert sie mit den Interessen anderer sprachenpolitischer Akteure, die sich der globalen "Lingua franca" English bedienen. Der Preis, der hierfur gezahlt wird, ist das Zuruckdrangen aller anderen Nationalsprachen aus zahlreichen Domanen der internationalen Kommunikation. Dies wirft eine Reihe von Fragen auf, die den Kern des europaischen Projekts als Gemeinschaft von Gleichen betreffen. Der Beitrag versucht, wesentliche Begriffe dieser Auseinandersetzung zu dekonstruieren und die hinter unterschiedlichen sprachenpolitischen Strategien verborgenen Interessen deutlich zu machen.
When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first ... more When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first place certainly belongs to the English language. With that in mind, this paper explores the tense relationship between the inherently multilingual project of the European integration and the monolingual communication practice in scientific publishing, which promotes English as the world language of research and science. The authors analyse the causes and mechanisms of this development in scientific communication and propose that it is based on a US-led hegemonial project aimed at dominating and controlling international science and research. This is achieved by establishing and maintaining language asymmetries and a hierarchy of research cultures. A central role in this aspect is played by the Journal Impact Factor, which is currently the most important tool of monolingualisation in research and science. One consequence of such an approach is the suppression of national and regional lang...
International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews (IJRPR), 2024
Considering the characteristics of contemporary societies, which are pluralistic, glocalized, and... more Considering the characteristics of contemporary societies, which are pluralistic, glocalized, and information-driven, there is an increased need for discursive competencies and reflection on concepts and ideas from varied and opposing perspectives. In foreign language education, the acquisition of language skills one aim, another being the development of participatory social skills, which can only take place when competencies for discourse and reflection are acquired. Research in the area of discourse competence and foreign language teaching has shown that combining subject teaching and foreign languages is conducive to the development of complex reflection and discourse. Bilingual subject teaching is aimed at providing subject matter knowledge and foreign language skills at the same time, but also has the task of developing students' participatory skill in society, which is accomplieshed through reflexive discourse competence. The aim of this study was to examine how students develop reflexive discourse competence in bilingual subject teaching. Firstly, the concept of discourse is examined in more detail and framed within bilingual subject teaching. Then, reflexive dimension and reflexivity staging are examined. Finally, the educational potential of foreign language reflexive discourse competence in bilingual subject teaching is presented.
International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 2024
The paper deals with the dominant language practices among university teachers and researchers in... more The paper deals with the dominant language practices among university teachers and researchers in Croatia with special emphasis on the two dominant languages taught, English and German. The discussed problem relates to the role of English as the lingua franca and the role of German as the second dominant foreign language in the country, as well as the potential presentation of the concept of European multilingualism in the Republic of Croatia. After reflecting on the debate on the role of language choice in academic publishing, i.e., whether the choice of one dominant foreign language is adequate in the search of research insights and truths or whether a richer choice of languages also offers a wider pallette of possible insights, the possibility of 'linguistic imperialism' through the dominance of English is explored. Phillipson's tripartite division of linguicist pro-English arguments is used as the background for the analysis of linguistic practices of Croatian researchers/university teachers. Upon examining the possible linguistic development of different academic disciplines, a dual communicative approach is suggested according to the needs and functions of specific academic domains.
In a multilingual world, languages represent various forms of capital in society and gain or lose... more In a multilingual world, languages represent various forms of capital in society and gain or lose prestige depending on how transferable they are perceived to be into social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital. The dominance of the English language and social media content in the Information Age affects people's language worldwide. In many countries, there is a significant trend toward diglossia, where the national language is used alongside English, leading to the marginalization of all other languages. In Croatia, an EU member state, the most popular foreign languages are English, German, and Italian. However, due to the linguistic dominance of English, foreign languages other than English have experienced a loss of status. This shift implies that people's perceptions of the types of capital those languages represent are changing and that there is a movement from multilingualism toward diglossia. This goes against the strongly promoted idea of multilingualism in the EU, where language variety is considered a valuable form of symbolic and cultural capital. Within that framework, this study aims to examine the attitudes of multilingual speakers in Croatia toward the four languages included in the study. The goal is to determine whether they perceive a language to represent a form of social, cultural, economic, or symbolic capital. Furthermore, based on the results, it will be concluded whether multilingual language practice is affected and whether there is a clash between the desired multilingual habitus of European citizens and their perceptions of language values, which determine their language choices.
International Journal of Management and Humanities , Mar 15, 2018
In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist s... more In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist sources of various content, like social networks, critical literacy skills are coming more into focus in education, as every individual needs to be able to discern relevant from irrelevant information and to develop an informed and independent viewpoint on a given topic. The paper deals with the development and assessment of critical literacy skills of teacher education students in Croatia based on the discussion and written analysis of online opinion-based texts. The pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess student critical literacy skills. Results indicate significant improvement in the tested skills when comparing the pre-test and the post-test results. The findings are seen as an incentive for further research and development of education materials related to critical literacy.
International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 2021
In this study eye tracking software was used to analyse the ways in which university students, ad... more In this study eye tracking software was used to analyse the ways in which university students, adult competent speakers of English at C1 level, process information when reading texts in the target language, and which strategies they use in order to summarise a given text. Research results point to four different reading techniques used by the participants in the study: partly selective fast linear, partly selective slow linear, selective structural and nonselective reading strategies. In comparison with previous research with reading tasks in L1, results show that readers take more time when reading in L2. In addition, there is a need for skill enhancement for the purpose of improved text structuring in reading tasks in the English language.
Translation, Transkulturalität und Mehrsprachigkeit, Vlasta Kucis and Helga Begonja (eds.), University of Zadar, 191-211, 2018
The paper deals with affective variables of motivation, orientations and attitudes toward the lea... more The paper deals with affective variables of motivation, orientations and attitudes toward the learning of German and English as foreign languages among teacher education students at the Faculty of Teacher Education (University of Zagreb). The learning of a foreign language is a long-term process, which requires a lot of effort on behalf of the learner. Research has shown that the language learning process does not only depend on cognitive factors, but is also influenced by socio-cultural and affective variables, whereby integrative motivation has a significantly stronger influence than its instrumental counterpart. The perceived use of a language alone cannot lead to successful language acquisition if at the same time a negatively oriented integrative motivation is at hand. This study has shown that there are statistically significant correlations in the attitudes toward English and German and the self-assessed previous learning success of respondents. The hypothesis was confirmed that English is more frequently positively perceived than German and that the factors affecting language learning include affective, cognitive and social aspects.
International Journal of Management and Humanities, 1-7, 2018
— In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist sources... more — In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist sources of various content, like social networks, critical literacy skills are coming more into focus in education, as every individual needs to be able to discern relevant from irrelevant information and to develop an informed and independent viewpoint on a given topic. The paper deals with the development and assessment of critical literacy skills of teacher education students in Croatia based on the discussion and written analysis of online opinion-based texts. The pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess student critical literacy skills. Results indicate significant improvement in the tested skills when comparing the pre-test and the post-test results. The findings are seen as an incentive for further research and development of education materials related to critical literacy.
K. Cergol Kovačević and S.L. Udier (eds.) Multidisciplinary Approaches to Multilingualism, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 159-182 [ISBN: 798-3-631-66377-6], 2015
Contrary to how it might seem at first glance, the language policy of the European Union is by no... more Contrary to how it might seem at first glance, the language policy of the European Union is by no means unitary, but rather marked by numerous contradictions in view of the criteria of democracy and efficiency. The discrepancy between the recommendations of the European Union on the promotion of plurilingualism among European citizens through the inclusion of the teaching of at least two foreign languages in national education systems on the one hand, and the regulation on the working languages in the institutions of the European Union with English as the global communication language on the other, is only the most obvious among many contradictions.
The paper analyses the arguments of the said language policy and weighs them against the interests of other language policy stakeholders, who use the global „linga franca“ English with an aim of communicating more quickly and more efficiently with the communicative resources of that world language. This is done at the price of the exclusion of all other national languages from numerous domains of international communication. As a result, a number of questions are raised concerning the core of the project of Europe as a community of equals: It is asked how one should, or must go about linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity as the founding myth of the European Union in the context of another myth – that of globalisation.
The goal of the paper is to deconstruct the fundamental concepts of this debate and to uncover the hidden interests underlying various language policy strategies. A central aspect of the paper concerns the language policy implications for the research and education policy in Europe, which is of special importance due to its potential to lead to the success or failure of the European project as we know it.
When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first ... more When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first place certainly belongs to the English language. With that in mind, this paper explores the tense relationship between the inherently multilingual project of the European integration and the monolingual communication practice in scientific publishing, which promotes English as the world language of research and science. The authors analyze the causes and mechanisms of this development in scientific communication and propose that it is based on a US-led hegemonial project aimed at dominating and controlling international science and research. This is achieved by establishing and maintaining language asymmetries and a hierarchy of research cultures. A central role in this aspect is played by the Journal Impact Factor, which is currently the most important tool of monolingualisation in research and science. One consequence of such an approach is the suppression of national and regional languages in scientific publishing and communication, as well as the change in the meaning of the concept ‘international’. A successful longterm implementation of the Anglophone linguistic hegemony in international scientific publishing may lead to huge obstacles for the European integration project. With that in mind, this paper explores alternative options such as multilingualism in scientific communication.
J. Polajnar (Hrsg.) Emotionen in Sprache und Kultur. Slovenske Germanistične Študije/Slowenische Germanistische Studien (7), Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, 2013, 84-97. [ISBN: 798-3-631-66377-6; ISSN: 2232-6219]
The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between foreign languages and their speakers... more The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between foreign languages and their speakers within a specific social domain (university) and in the context of contemporary societal developments (globalisation, internationalisation) affecting the speakers' language attitudes. More specifically, one departing point of this study is the status loss of German in comparison to the globally dominant English, another is an increased emphasis on plurilingualism, which is promoted as a valuable asset of educated and cosmopolitan citizens of Europe. In this context, the main focus lies on the German language as a representative of plurilingualism in the language palette of Croatian speakers. Analysed will be its status in comparison to the status of English and Croatian among a selected group of students at the University of Zagreb, as well as whether and to which extent each of these languages form part of students' linguistic identities and their potential plurilingual habitus (cf. Mathé 2010; see also Bourdieu 1983).
Der Beitrag untersucht die Argumentationslinien der "English only" Sprachenpolitik und ... more Der Beitrag untersucht die Argumentationslinien der "English only" Sprachenpolitik und konfrontiert sie mit den Interessen anderer sprachenpolitischer Akteure, die sich der globalen "Lingua franca" English bedienen. Der Preis, der hierfur gezahlt wird, ist das Zuruckdrangen aller anderen Nationalsprachen aus zahlreichen Domanen der internationalen Kommunikation. Dies wirft eine Reihe von Fragen auf, die den Kern des europaischen Projekts als Gemeinschaft von Gleichen betreffen. Der Beitrag versucht, wesentliche Begriffe dieser Auseinandersetzung zu dekonstruieren und die hinter unterschiedlichen sprachenpolitischen Strategien verborgenen Interessen deutlich zu machen.
When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first ... more When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first place certainly belongs to the English language. With that in mind, this paper explores the tense relationship between the inherently multilingual project of the European integration and the monolingual communication practice in scientific publishing, which promotes English as the world language of research and science. The authors analyse the causes and mechanisms of this development in scientific communication and propose that it is based on a US-led hegemonial project aimed at dominating and controlling international science and research. This is achieved by establishing and maintaining language asymmetries and a hierarchy of research cultures. A central role in this aspect is played by the Journal Impact Factor, which is currently the most important tool of monolingualisation in research and science. One consequence of such an approach is the suppression of national and regional lang...
International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews (IJRPR), 2024
Considering the characteristics of contemporary societies, which are pluralistic, glocalized, and... more Considering the characteristics of contemporary societies, which are pluralistic, glocalized, and information-driven, there is an increased need for discursive competencies and reflection on concepts and ideas from varied and opposing perspectives. In foreign language education, the acquisition of language skills one aim, another being the development of participatory social skills, which can only take place when competencies for discourse and reflection are acquired. Research in the area of discourse competence and foreign language teaching has shown that combining subject teaching and foreign languages is conducive to the development of complex reflection and discourse. Bilingual subject teaching is aimed at providing subject matter knowledge and foreign language skills at the same time, but also has the task of developing students' participatory skill in society, which is accomplieshed through reflexive discourse competence. The aim of this study was to examine how students develop reflexive discourse competence in bilingual subject teaching. Firstly, the concept of discourse is examined in more detail and framed within bilingual subject teaching. Then, reflexive dimension and reflexivity staging are examined. Finally, the educational potential of foreign language reflexive discourse competence in bilingual subject teaching is presented.
International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology, 2024
The paper deals with the dominant language practices among university teachers and researchers in... more The paper deals with the dominant language practices among university teachers and researchers in Croatia with special emphasis on the two dominant languages taught, English and German. The discussed problem relates to the role of English as the lingua franca and the role of German as the second dominant foreign language in the country, as well as the potential presentation of the concept of European multilingualism in the Republic of Croatia. After reflecting on the debate on the role of language choice in academic publishing, i.e., whether the choice of one dominant foreign language is adequate in the search of research insights and truths or whether a richer choice of languages also offers a wider pallette of possible insights, the possibility of 'linguistic imperialism' through the dominance of English is explored. Phillipson's tripartite division of linguicist pro-English arguments is used as the background for the analysis of linguistic practices of Croatian researchers/university teachers. Upon examining the possible linguistic development of different academic disciplines, a dual communicative approach is suggested according to the needs and functions of specific academic domains.
In a multilingual world, languages represent various forms of capital in society and gain or lose... more In a multilingual world, languages represent various forms of capital in society and gain or lose prestige depending on how transferable they are perceived to be into social, cultural, economic, and symbolic capital. The dominance of the English language and social media content in the Information Age affects people's language worldwide. In many countries, there is a significant trend toward diglossia, where the national language is used alongside English, leading to the marginalization of all other languages. In Croatia, an EU member state, the most popular foreign languages are English, German, and Italian. However, due to the linguistic dominance of English, foreign languages other than English have experienced a loss of status. This shift implies that people's perceptions of the types of capital those languages represent are changing and that there is a movement from multilingualism toward diglossia. This goes against the strongly promoted idea of multilingualism in the EU, where language variety is considered a valuable form of symbolic and cultural capital. Within that framework, this study aims to examine the attitudes of multilingual speakers in Croatia toward the four languages included in the study. The goal is to determine whether they perceive a language to represent a form of social, cultural, economic, or symbolic capital. Furthermore, based on the results, it will be concluded whether multilingual language practice is affected and whether there is a clash between the desired multilingual habitus of European citizens and their perceptions of language values, which determine their language choices.
International Journal of Management and Humanities , Mar 15, 2018
In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist s... more In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist sources of various content, like social networks, critical literacy skills are coming more into focus in education, as every individual needs to be able to discern relevant from irrelevant information and to develop an informed and independent viewpoint on a given topic. The paper deals with the development and assessment of critical literacy skills of teacher education students in Croatia based on the discussion and written analysis of online opinion-based texts. The pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess student critical literacy skills. Results indicate significant improvement in the tested skills when comparing the pre-test and the post-test results. The findings are seen as an incentive for further research and development of education materials related to critical literacy.
International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 2021
In this study eye tracking software was used to analyse the ways in which university students, ad... more In this study eye tracking software was used to analyse the ways in which university students, adult competent speakers of English at C1 level, process information when reading texts in the target language, and which strategies they use in order to summarise a given text. Research results point to four different reading techniques used by the participants in the study: partly selective fast linear, partly selective slow linear, selective structural and nonselective reading strategies. In comparison with previous research with reading tasks in L1, results show that readers take more time when reading in L2. In addition, there is a need for skill enhancement for the purpose of improved text structuring in reading tasks in the English language.
Translation, Transkulturalität und Mehrsprachigkeit, Vlasta Kucis and Helga Begonja (eds.), University of Zadar, 191-211, 2018
The paper deals with affective variables of motivation, orientations and attitudes toward the lea... more The paper deals with affective variables of motivation, orientations and attitudes toward the learning of German and English as foreign languages among teacher education students at the Faculty of Teacher Education (University of Zagreb). The learning of a foreign language is a long-term process, which requires a lot of effort on behalf of the learner. Research has shown that the language learning process does not only depend on cognitive factors, but is also influenced by socio-cultural and affective variables, whereby integrative motivation has a significantly stronger influence than its instrumental counterpart. The perceived use of a language alone cannot lead to successful language acquisition if at the same time a negatively oriented integrative motivation is at hand. This study has shown that there are statistically significant correlations in the attitudes toward English and German and the self-assessed previous learning success of respondents. The hypothesis was confirmed that English is more frequently positively perceived than German and that the factors affecting language learning include affective, cognitive and social aspects.
International Journal of Management and Humanities, 1-7, 2018
— In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist sources... more — In the era of 'post-truth' and accelerated information flows with increasingly populist sources of various content, like social networks, critical literacy skills are coming more into focus in education, as every individual needs to be able to discern relevant from irrelevant information and to develop an informed and independent viewpoint on a given topic. The paper deals with the development and assessment of critical literacy skills of teacher education students in Croatia based on the discussion and written analysis of online opinion-based texts. The pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess student critical literacy skills. Results indicate significant improvement in the tested skills when comparing the pre-test and the post-test results. The findings are seen as an incentive for further research and development of education materials related to critical literacy.
K. Cergol Kovačević and S.L. Udier (eds.) Multidisciplinary Approaches to Multilingualism, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 159-182 [ISBN: 798-3-631-66377-6], 2015
Contrary to how it might seem at first glance, the language policy of the European Union is by no... more Contrary to how it might seem at first glance, the language policy of the European Union is by no means unitary, but rather marked by numerous contradictions in view of the criteria of democracy and efficiency. The discrepancy between the recommendations of the European Union on the promotion of plurilingualism among European citizens through the inclusion of the teaching of at least two foreign languages in national education systems on the one hand, and the regulation on the working languages in the institutions of the European Union with English as the global communication language on the other, is only the most obvious among many contradictions.
The paper analyses the arguments of the said language policy and weighs them against the interests of other language policy stakeholders, who use the global „linga franca“ English with an aim of communicating more quickly and more efficiently with the communicative resources of that world language. This is done at the price of the exclusion of all other national languages from numerous domains of international communication. As a result, a number of questions are raised concerning the core of the project of Europe as a community of equals: It is asked how one should, or must go about linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity as the founding myth of the European Union in the context of another myth – that of globalisation.
The goal of the paper is to deconstruct the fundamental concepts of this debate and to uncover the hidden interests underlying various language policy strategies. A central aspect of the paper concerns the language policy implications for the research and education policy in Europe, which is of special importance due to its potential to lead to the success or failure of the European project as we know it.
When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first ... more When discussing the international status of languages in current research and science, the first place certainly belongs to the English language. With that in mind, this paper explores the tense relationship between the inherently multilingual project of the European integration and the monolingual communication practice in scientific publishing, which promotes English as the world language of research and science. The authors analyze the causes and mechanisms of this development in scientific communication and propose that it is based on a US-led hegemonial project aimed at dominating and controlling international science and research. This is achieved by establishing and maintaining language asymmetries and a hierarchy of research cultures. A central role in this aspect is played by the Journal Impact Factor, which is currently the most important tool of monolingualisation in research and science. One consequence of such an approach is the suppression of national and regional languages in scientific publishing and communication, as well as the change in the meaning of the concept ‘international’. A successful longterm implementation of the Anglophone linguistic hegemony in international scientific publishing may lead to huge obstacles for the European integration project. With that in mind, this paper explores alternative options such as multilingualism in scientific communication.
J. Polajnar (Hrsg.) Emotionen in Sprache und Kultur. Slovenske Germanistične Študije/Slowenische Germanistische Studien (7), Ljubljana: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, 2013, 84-97. [ISBN: 798-3-631-66377-6; ISSN: 2232-6219]
The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between foreign languages and their speakers... more The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between foreign languages and their speakers within a specific social domain (university) and in the context of contemporary societal developments (globalisation, internationalisation) affecting the speakers' language attitudes. More specifically, one departing point of this study is the status loss of German in comparison to the globally dominant English, another is an increased emphasis on plurilingualism, which is promoted as a valuable asset of educated and cosmopolitan citizens of Europe. In this context, the main focus lies on the German language as a representative of plurilingualism in the language palette of Croatian speakers. Analysed will be its status in comparison to the status of English and Croatian among a selected group of students at the University of Zagreb, as well as whether and to which extent each of these languages form part of students' linguistic identities and their potential plurilingual habitus (cf. Mathé 2010; see also Bourdieu 1983).
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This study has shown that there are statistically significant correlations in the attitudes toward English and German and the self-assessed previous learning success of respondents. The hypothesis was confirmed that English is more frequently positively perceived than German and that the factors affecting language learning include affective, cognitive and social aspects.
Publication link: http://katalog.nsk.hr/F/?func=direct&doc_number=001015213
The paper analyses the arguments of the said language policy and weighs them against the interests of other language policy stakeholders, who use the global „linga franca“ English with an aim of communicating more quickly and more efficiently with the communicative resources of that world language. This is done at the price of the exclusion of all other national languages from numerous domains of international communication. As a result, a number of questions are raised concerning the core of the project of Europe as a community of equals: It is asked how one should, or must go about linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity as the founding myth of the European Union in the context of another myth – that of globalisation.
The goal of the paper is to deconstruct the fundamental concepts of this debate and to uncover the hidden interests underlying various language policy strategies. A central aspect of the paper concerns the language policy implications for the research and education policy in Europe, which is of special importance due to its potential to lead to the success or failure of the European project as we know it.
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This study has shown that there are statistically significant correlations in the attitudes toward English and German and the self-assessed previous learning success of respondents. The hypothesis was confirmed that English is more frequently positively perceived than German and that the factors affecting language learning include affective, cognitive and social aspects.
Publication link: http://katalog.nsk.hr/F/?func=direct&doc_number=001015213
The paper analyses the arguments of the said language policy and weighs them against the interests of other language policy stakeholders, who use the global „linga franca“ English with an aim of communicating more quickly and more efficiently with the communicative resources of that world language. This is done at the price of the exclusion of all other national languages from numerous domains of international communication. As a result, a number of questions are raised concerning the core of the project of Europe as a community of equals: It is asked how one should, or must go about linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity as the founding myth of the European Union in the context of another myth – that of globalisation.
The goal of the paper is to deconstruct the fundamental concepts of this debate and to uncover the hidden interests underlying various language policy strategies. A central aspect of the paper concerns the language policy implications for the research and education policy in Europe, which is of special importance due to its potential to lead to the success or failure of the European project as we know it.