STAVOVI GOVORNIKA O SRPSKO-SLOVAČKOJ DVOJEZIČNOSTI U VIŠEJEZIČNOJ VOJVODINI
SPEAKERS' OPINIONS ABOUT SERBIAN-SLOVAK BILINGUALISM IN MULTILINGUAL VOJVODINA

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with Serbian-Slovak bilingualism in Vojvodina. Bilingualism is a relatively common phenomenon, so Serbian-Slovak bilingualism in the contemporary, multilingual Vojvodinian setting is quite natural. There are several forms of bilingualism, and one of which includes natural bilingual speakers who are members of ethnic minorities (as in the case of Slovaks in Vojvodina), but also Serbs who live alongside Slovaks. Whether a bilingual person from Vojvodina will use one language (Slovak) or the other (Serbian) depends on the communicative situation and the interlocutor (if he/she is bilingual or monolingual). Linguistic competence in both languages is not the same among all Serbian-Slovak speakers, and there is a lot of code-switching in their communication. After the introductory comments, the second part is devoted to issues of the concept of bilingualism, especially concerning the theoretical and methodological bases of bilingualism and various definitions of this concept. This is followed by a description of the research methodology.The core of the paper describes the methodology of field research with the use of a questionnaire. Then the results of the questionnaire are presented and analyzed. Our informants were bilingual Serbian-Slovak speakers. This study included 15 informants (8 male, 7 female) who were non-Slovaks. The analysis of the results from the questionnaire was directed at several key issues: linguistic competence of bilingual speakers (in Slovak language), how bilingual speakers evaluate their own competence in Slovak, and in which situations they use Slovak. It is optimistic that all informants assessed their bilingualism as an advantage and a positive phenomenon.

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