  It is found that in presence of electroweak interactions the gauge covariant
diagonalization of the axial-vector -- pseudoscalar mixing in the effective
meson Lagrangian leads to a deviation from the vector meson and the
axial-vector meson dominance of the entire hadronic electroweak current. The
essential features of such a modification of the theory are investigated in the
framework of the extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model with explicit breaking of
chiral $U(2) \times U(2)$ symmetry. The Schwinger-DeWitt method is used as a
major tool in our study of the real part of the relevant effective action. Some
straightforward applications are considered.
