THE RISE OF ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA IN ESTONIA

Abstract

A considerable amount of literature has been published on the spread of English and the use of this language in states where the first language is not English. The following dissertation will provide an overview of the rise and role of English as a lingua franca in the Baltic States, more specifically in Estonia in Tartu University where my research was carried out. It begins with a general description of the use of English in Europe as a lingua franca, then, in the second section, a focus on the use of English in Estonia and its historical background is provided. Subsequently, the thesis analyses the role of English in Estonian Higher Education and finally the last chapter reports the main findings of my case-study which was conducted through an online questionnaire of 20 questions delivered to 40 students attending Tartu University. The results of this research indicated an increasing use of the English language, especially among younger generations, and a simultaneous refusal of Russian, the previous lingua franca of this country. In particular, the current study found that attitudes towards the use of the English language in the fields of communication, especially the virtual one, and in the University are positive, demonstrating the crucial role of English in these contexts.