10.51558 British or American English: Bosnian learners’ preferences

Abstract

Exonormatively oriented EFL speakers are well-disposed towards native varieties, particularly British and American English. Due to the varieties’ overlapping domains of influence, the question of consistency and preferences for one of the varieties comes into focus. Hence, this study explores Bosnian respondents’ preference for British or American English in pronunciation, orthography, lexis and grammar and their ability to recognise language units as characteristic of one variety or the other. Additionally, the study investigates whether students maintain consistency or whether they are inclined to use both varieties interchangeably. The obtained results confirm that Bosnian respondents have a solid knowledge of varietal differences but are highly inconsistent. Still, they prefer the American variety in all domains of language use, to a differing extent though.