The aim of this study was to explore automaticity of lexical access and executive functions of language learners and bilinguals while considering their language automaticity. Three groups of youths aged 14 to 18 were tested: Croatian-German early bilinguals, Croatian high school students who participated in a German immersion programme at school and Croatian high school students of German as a foreign language. The participants were tested on a modified version of the Stroop test (i.e., a Stroop-like test). It presented pictures of an animal or an object with names of an animal or an object written over the picture. The names were written in Croatian or German and were either congruent or incongruent. Lexical access was slower for the bilinguals in both Croatian and German, which suggests that they used more of their cognitive resources because both of their languages were highly active, and more executive control was required to complete the task.

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The aim of the research described in this article was to look into the usefulness and benefits of the Erasmus+ Programme. The research also included university students' reflections and evaluations of their own experience during the period spent on Erasmus+ exchange, focusing on the cultural aspects of their experience. To establish the importance of Erasmus+, it was first necessary to define what the concept of 'culture' encompasses. Furthermore, it was important to look into the development of cultural awareness and intercultural learning of participants within such an exchange programme-people from different cultural backgrounds. For that purpose, a questionnaire was designed, which was filled in by 100 students from 22 countries, including Croatia. The results have shown that the participants learned very much about the culture of the particular country in which they were on exchange. In addition, they learned about the cultures of the other participants in the programme. Most participants replied that during the exchange they had felt a difference between their own culture and other cultures, and they emphasized possible future benefits. According to the results, the Erasmus+ Programme facilitates to a great extent the participants' understanding and accepting of foreign cultures. Therefore, the young people who have had the opportunity to participate in the programme feel considerable advantages in their personal development. In addition, they believe that the multicultural experience will bring about multiple opportunities in their professional lives.

The article discusses the results of a study conducted among students of English at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, Croatia. Although the study might be considered to be a rather limited one (60 participants), the author believes that it could give a general picture about the type of knowledge that young educated Croatians have about American culture. Generally speaking, the students-participants do not seem to be either positively or negatively biased regarding American culture. Their sources of information are mainly some aspects of formal education (school and/or university), complemented by TV and films. On the whole, the students do not think that they have good knowledge of American culture, and a number of them expressed the opinion that what they knew might only be stereotypes. This attitude may mean that at least some of the students-respondents will try to gain better insight into the subject of American culture in the future.

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