| Abstract (english) | In order to strengthen the social cohesion and turn the linguistic heterogeneity into an asset, the Commission of the European Communities (2008) has set the promotion of multilingualism and language learning as one of its focal tasks. Having adopted the language policy which would enable EU citizens to communicate in two additional foreign languages alongside their mother tongue (Commission of the European Communities, 2008, p. 4), multilingualism (plurilingualism) has been set as an educational goal in the school systems of EU countries (European Commission 2017). Additionally, in the last 20 years, research on the educational aspect of multilingualism has intensified, encouraged by more or less empirically validated claims on the benefits of multilingualism and multiple language learning.At the same time, multilingualism in classrooms in the EU is becoming a norm. This is due to the fact that learners, besides majority language, also speak various regional languages, foreign languages, or migrant languages. As a result, in recent years, there has been an increase in the number of proposals of pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures and integrated language learning curricula which acknowledge learners’ previous linguistic knowledge (their linguistic repertoires). However, the linguistic situation isnot the same in all member countries. While the EU as a whole is faced with a growing level of multilingualism, both at a societal and individual level, the linguistic situation in Croatia is quite homogenous; with the vast majority of learners in Croatian classrooms being native speakers of the dominant language, Croatian. Although Croatia has a long history of foreign language learning, and its speakers are often proficient speakers of at least one foreign language, multilingualism at the Multilingualism in English language classrooms in Croatia: Can we think outside the box?
57individual level is almost exclusively the result of learning foreign languages in an additive manner as separate school subjects. Same as in many countries of the EU, English is most commonly the first foreign language learned at school, and there are voiced concerns that the hegemony of English may stand in the way of the promotion of multilingualism and additional language learning. When trying to strike a balance between available research and language policy recommendations at the EU level, and the implementation ofsuch policies at the level of member countries, it is necessary to look at numerous factors both directly and indirectly related to the socio-educational context in which it takes place. The implementation of educational policies depends inter aliaon teachers’ attitudes and beliefs as they underlie the choices teachers make in the classroom and the extent to which they accept new teaching approaches and strategies (Borg, 2003). In the light of the proposals that argue for approaches to teaching which soften the boundaries between languages (e.g., Cenoz & Gorter, 2015), we looked into the beliefs of English language teachers in Croatia whose classrooms are predominantly populated by learners with the same L1-Croatian. As many teachers may be multilingual, we were interested in their awareness of the potential it may have in their teaching practice and their attitudes to introducing other languages into their English language classrooms. |
