Linguistic terms in contemporary textbooks of Croatian language

Abstract

Since 2019, when the Croatian language subject curriculum was introduced, until today, new textbooks of Croatian have been written, and the aim of this paper is to investigate how consistent they are in the use of linguistic terminology. Previous research has pointed to the lack of uniformity and consistency in the use of linguistic terminology in Croatian language textbooks, which is reflected, among other things, in many pairs and sequences of synonyms, causing difficulties in school practice. In the first phase of the research, which is presented in this paper, all primary school textbooks for grades 5-8 were analyzed, focusing on the terms at the phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexicological, and orthographical levels. The results of the textbooks analysis were compared with the terminology in contemporary school grammar books and Croatian orthography and spelling books, with the 2006 Primary School Curriculum, and with the 2019 Croatian language subject curriculum entitled the Curriculum of the Subject Croatian Language for Primary Schools and Grammar Schools. Although certain different linguistic terms can be found in new textbooks at all mentioned levels, it can still be concluded that contemporary textbooks are more consistent than previous textbooks regarding the use of linguistic terms.