The English of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

With the number of world Englishes steadily increasing, the impact of ‘core’ English varieties is weakening. However, the influence of two varieties, namely standardised American English and standardised British English, seems to be dispersed across all areas, in particular across peripheral varieties. Due to the difference in their demographic weight and the institutional support they receive, these two varieties do not secure a balanced representation in the peripheral layer. The current study investigates whether 132 university‐level Bosnian learners of English report using particular items of American or British English at the levels of pronunciation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary.

Efl Teacher Candidates’ Inner Circle English Preferences and the Factors Behind Them

“…There are mixed results in the literature concerning university students" preferences of English varieties in a multitude of contexts. British variant occupied a more prestigious position and it was the preferred variety by university-level students in countries such as Norway (Rindal, 2010) Spain (Carrie, 2017) and Finland (Koskela, 2017) while AmE was the more dominant variety among the participants in the context of Bosnia (Dubravac et al, 2018). More importantly, the research indicated that students" variety preferences affected their pronunciation models although their preferences did not necessarily correspond to their actual uses (Rindal, 2010).…”

“…However, it is important to note that these studies often explored one aspect of participants" English preferences, which was pronunciation. In a notable exception among the research in this particular strand was the study conducted by Dubravac et al (2018) in Bosnian context, where students favored AmE with respect to pronunciation and grammar while displaying no significant preference for a particular variety in terms of vocabulary and spelling. It is also noted in this study that the proliferation of the American variant in Bosnia seemed to affect learners" preferences in certain language areas despite of BrE being the traditional pedagogical model for these learners.…”

“…The instruments for data collection consisted of a background questionnaire and a survey to determine individuals" adoption levels of American and British variety of English. The survey, which was developed by Dubravac et al (2018), was employed for the present study following the permissions from the corresponding author. The instrument was mainly comprised of two sections which aimed to measure the differences in choices across four main variables including pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary (see Dubravac et al, 2018).…”

“…The survey, which was developed by Dubravac et al (2018), was employed for the present study following the permissions from the corresponding author. The instrument was mainly comprised of two sections which aimed to measure the differences in choices across four main variables including pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary (see Dubravac et al, 2018). Participants were expected to choose either American or British pronunciation of the selected lexical items in the first section.…”

Native and Non-Native EFL Teachers Dichotomy: Terminological, Competitiveness and Employment Discrimination

“…This gap between classroom English and everyday language suggests that the language of EFL classes tends to be more formal and uniform than any real spoken English. This happens out of necessity because there are so many different types of English, dependent upon such factors as cultural region, generation, and class, (Dubravac, Brdarević-Čeljo, & Bećirović, 2018). To be more practical , EFL materials and classes have to use a more standardised version of English.…”