ENGLISH AS A LANGUAGE OF CONVERSATION USED BY SLOVENE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTSRauter, Maja (Avtor) Šabec, Nada (Mentor) the English languagethe Slovene languagelingua francalanguage influencethe language of conversationEnglish is the lingua franca of the world and it is as such affecting many languages; Slovene is no exception to this process. In the indirect contact between English and Slovene, the former is affecting the later in different areas, but the most receptive are the areas of media and the spoken discourse of young people. In the language of conversation of high school students in Slovenia, English is mostly used to fill lexical gaps, but lately it is also used in cases where there already exists a Slovene equivalent. This is a consequence of an increased influence of English on Slovene. There are some English words and phrases that are used by high school students independently of the fact where these students live, and there are some words and phrases that vary from city to city. Students of three different cities (Ljubljana, Maribor, and Murska Sobota) were included in the research sample. The purpose of this diploma paper was to find out the degree of students’ awareness of English influence on Slovene, to find the differences in the use of English among students living in different cities and to determine words and phrases that are most commonly used in the language of conversation of young people in Slovenia. [M. Rauter]20122012-01-25 18:00:34Diplomsko delo21955UDK: 811.111(043.2)COBISS_ID: 19012360NUK URN: URN:SI:UM:DK:FKSFEX8Bsl