Elite bilingualism? Language use among multilingual teenagers of Swedish background in European Schools and international schools in Europe

Abstract

This article explores the language use and language attitudes as reported by a number of multilingual teenagers with a Swedish background in European Schools and international schools in Europe. Special attention is given to the concepts of Third Culture Kids and elite bilingualism in relation to teenagers’ multilingualism. This study is based on a sociolinguistic survey comprising 72 participants. The results show a relationship between the language of instruction in two different international education programmes and participants’ reported language use and attitudes.