Cover not available
Part of
World Englishes in their Local Multilingual Ecologies
Edited by Peter Siemund, Gardy Stein and Manuela Vida-Mannl
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 9] 2025
► pp. 365–384

Chapter 16
English as a lingua franca in Croatia’s multilingual ecology

 | TU Dortmund University
This chapter offers one of the first assessments of the role of English in Croatia that focuses on non-educational settings. After presenting the linguistic history of Croatia as part of former Yugoslavia, it offers an overview of its current linguistic ecology. In so doing, the status and role of the most important and most frequently used languages in Croatia are introduced before zooming in on the role and use of English. While English has been part of the linguistic ecology of Croatia in various domains for quite some time already, it has so far predominantly been investigated in educational contexts. This chapter will focus on tourism and discuss how English might be conceptualized in these contexts. Using the framework of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) to assess linguistic features occurring in oral interview data, the paper shows that tourism in Croatia can be considered to be a context of ELF use. However, the analysis also shows that some characteristics of ELF that are found in the data might also be explained by specific language contact between Croatian and English and that other linguistic characteristics might not be accounted for so easily and should be further investigated.
Keywords: Croatia, English as a lingua franca, English in tourism, global use of English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The multilingual ecology of Croatia
    • 2.1Language use and status in Croatia
    • 2.2English for touristic purposes in Croatia
  • 3.ELF in tourism contexts: Methodology and data
    • 3.1Morphological features of ELF
    • 3.2Syntactic features of ELF
  • 4.English for touristic purposes in Croatia: Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (60)
References
Baker, Will. 2015. Culture and Identity through English as a Lingua Franca: Rethinking Concepts and Goals in Intercultural Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brunner, Marie-Louise; Stefan Diemer & Selina Schmidt. 2018. “It’s always different when you look something from the inside” — Linguistic innovation in a corpus of ELF Skype conversations. In Sandra C. Deshors, Sandra Götz, & Samantha Laporte (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Creativity in Non-native Englishes, pp. 193–220. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bugarski, Ranko. 2004. Language and boundaries in the Yugoslav context. In Brigitta Busch & Helen Kelly-Holmes (eds.), Language Discourse and Borders in the Yugoslav Successor States, pp. 21–37. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Language, identity and borders in the former Serbo-Croatian area. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33(3): 219–235. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bunčić, Daniel. 2008. Die (Re-)Nationalisierung der serbokroatischen Standards. In Sebastian Kempgen, Karl Gutschmidt, Ulrike Jekutsch & Ludger Udolph (eds.,) Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress, Ohrid 2008, pp. 89–102. München: Sagner.Google Scholar
Cogo, Alessia & Martin Dewey. 2012. Analysing English as a Lingua Franca: A Corpus-based Investigation. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Croatian Bureau of Statistics. 2022a. Annual Gross Domestic Product — Annual Calculation. [URL] (14 June 2023).
. 2022b. 1700 Tourism, 2021. [URL] (14 June 2023).
. 2023. Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in 2021 — Population of Republic of Croatia. [URL] (14 June 2023).
Dewey, Martin. 2007. English as a lingua franca and globalization: An interconnected perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17(3): 332–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drljača Margić, Branka & Irena Vodopija-Krstanović. 2018. Language development for English-medium instruction: Teachers’ perceptions, reflections and learning. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 35: 31–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drljača Margić, Branke & Irena Vodopija-Krstanović. 2020. The benefits, challenges and prospects of EMI in Croatia: An integrated perspective. In Slobodanka Dimova & Joyce Kling (eds.), Integrating Content and Language in Multilingual Universities. Educational Linguistics, pp. 75–96. Springer, Cham. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. 2006. Communities of practice. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edn, pp. 683–685. Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Education First. 2022. EF English Proficiency Index — A Ranking of 111 Countries and Regions by English Skills. [URL] (12 October 2024).
Ennis, Michael & Gina Petrie (eds.). 2019. Teaching English for Tourism: Bridging Research and Praxis. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Commission. 2022. Croatia. [URL] (12 June 2023).
Gerritsen, Marinel & Catherine Nickerson. 2009. BELF: Business English as a lingua franca. In Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini (ed.), The Handbook of Business Discourse, pp. 180–192. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gröschel, Bernhard. 2009. Das Serbokroatische zwischen Linguistik und Politik: Mit einer Bibliographie zum postjugoslavischen Sprachenstreit. München: Lincom.Google Scholar
Heinz, Christof & Holger Kuße. 2015. Slawischer Sprachvergleich für die Praxis. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hülmbauer, Cornelia. 2013. From within and without: The virtual and the plurilingual in ELF. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 2(1): 47–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hynninen, Nina. 2016. Language Regulation in English as a Lingua Franca: Focus on Academic Spoken Discourse. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ivanović, Sanja V., Jakob Patekar & Nataša Košuta. 2019. Do study programs in Croatia prepare future Foreign language teachers to work with young learners? Croatian Journal Educational / Hrvatski Casopis Za Odgoj I Obrazovanje 21(1): 307–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, Jennifer. 2000. The Phonology of English as an International Language: New Models, New Norms, New Goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2006a. Current perspectives on teaching World Englishes and English as a lingua franca. TESOL Quarterly 40(1): 157–181. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006b. Points of view and blind spots: ELF and SLA. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 16(2): 137–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2007. English as a Lingua Franca: Attitudes and Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Jennifer, Marko Modiano & Barbara Seidlhofer. 2001. Euro-English. English Today 17: 13–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj B. 1985. Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. In Randolph Quirk & H. G. Widdowson (eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literatures, pp. 11–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for The British Council.Google Scholar
Kordić, Ljubica & Vesna Cigan. 2013. Teaching and learning foreign languages for legal purposes in Croatia. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 34(1): 59–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kostic Bobanovic, Moira & Jasmina Grzinic. 2011. The importance of English language skills in the tourism sector: A comparative study of students/employees perceptions in Croatia. Almatourism — Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development 2(4): 10–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1982. Building on empirical foundations. In Winfred Lehmann & Yakov Malkiel (eds.), Perspectives on Historical Linguistics, pp. 17–92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1984. Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In John Baugh & Joel Sherzer (eds.), Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics, pp. 28–54. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Lampe, John R., Dijana Pleština, Liz David-Barrett & C. W. Bracewell. 2023. Croatia. Encyclopedia Britannica. [URL] (12 October 2024).
Lave, Jean & Etienne Wenger. 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maci, Stefania M. 2018. An introduction to English tourism discourse. Sociolinguistica 32(1): 25–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk, 3rd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Margić, Branka D. & Dorjana Širola. 2014. ‘Jamaican and Irish for fun, British to show off’: Attitudes of Croatian university students of TEFL to English language varieties: How entrenched are students’ attitudes to national varieties of English? English Today 30(3): 48–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mason, Jennifer. 2002. Qualitative interviewing. In Jennifer Mason (ed.), Qualitative researching, 2nd edn, pp. 62–83. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Matijašević, Miljen. 2013. Functionalist approach to teaching legal translation. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 34(1): 113–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mauranen, Anna. 2012. Exploring ELF — Academic English Shaped by Non-native Speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Medved Krajnović, Marta & Stela Letica. 2009. Učenje stranih jezika u Hrvatskoj: Politika, znanost i javnost [Foreign language learning in Croatia: Policy, science and the public]. In Jagoda Granić (ed.), Jezičnapolitika i jezična Stvarnost [Language Policy and Language Reality], pp. 598–607. Zagreb: Croatian Association of Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Meierkord, Cornelia. 2004. Syntactic variation in interactions across international Englishes. English World-Wide 25(1): 109–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mihaljević Djigunović, Jelena. 2013. Multilingual attitudes and attitudes to multilingualism in Croatia. In David Singleton, Joshua Fishman, Larissa Aronin & Muiris Ó Laoire (eds.), Current Multilingualism: A New Linguistic Dispensation, pp. 163–186. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, Janus. 2013. Notes on English used as a lingua franca as an object of study. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca 2(1): 25–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murata, Kumiko. 2015. Exploring ELF in Japanese Academic and Business Contexts: Conceptualization, Research and Pedagogic Implications. London: Taylor and Francis. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paris, Dubravka. 2017. Teaching business English at Rrif College of Financial Management in Zagreb, Republic of Croatia. Journal of Accounting & Management 7(2): 41–52.Google Scholar
Petričušić, Antonija. 2004. Constitutional law on the rights of national minorities in the Republic of Croatia. European Yearbook of Minority Issues 2: 607–629.Google Scholar
Požgaj Hadži, Vesna. 2014. Language policy and linguistic reality in former Yugoslavia and its successor States. Inter Faculty 5: 49–91.Google Scholar
Seidlhofer, Barbara. 2004. Research perspectives on teaching English as a lingua franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24: 209–239. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Seidlhofer, Barbara & Henry Widdowson. 2009. Conformity and creativity in ELF and learner English. In Michaela Albl-Mikasa, Sabine Braun & Sylvia Kalina (eds.), Dimensionen der Zweisprachenforschung — Dimensions of second language research: Festschrift für Kurt Kohn, pp. 93–107. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Stainton, Hayley. 2019. TEFL Tourism: Principles, Commodification & the Sustainability of Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Wallingford: CABI Publishing.Google Scholar
Strang, Barbara M. H. 1970. A History of English. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Vida-Mannl, Manuela. 2022. The Value of the English Language in Global Mobility and Higher Education: An Investigation of Higher Education in Cyprus. London: Bloomsbury. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2024. “How can I get into the city center?” — Pragmatic strategies at use in international tourism interactions in Croatia. Frontiers in Communication 9: 1407295. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. Forthc. Investigating English on social media for international tourism purposes. In Jakob R. E. Leimgruber, Sofia Rüdiger & Sven Leuckert (eds.), World Englishes and Social Media: Platforms, Variation, and Meta-Discourse. London: Bloomsbury.
Vilke, Mirjana. 2007. English in Croatia — A glimpse into past, present and future. Metodika 8(14): 17–24.Google Scholar
Widdowson, Henry G. 1997. EIL, ESL, EFL: Global issues and local interest. World Englishes 16(1): 135–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Adam. 2018. Adapting English for the specific purpose of tourism: A study of communication strategies in face-to-face encounters in a French tourist office. ASp 73: 53–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. Getting down to business — Intercultural communication and the utilitarian discourse system in an urban tourist destination in France. In Bal Krishna Sharma & Shuang Gao (eds.), Language and Intercultural Communication in Tourism: Critical Perspectives, pp. 159–178. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar