Linguistic habitus, different capitals and the identity of bilingual youth: the case of Austrian Carinthia

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article summarises the results of pilot research about communicative practices among adolescents at bilingual schools in Austrian Carinthia. I present the findings by referencing Bourdieu's Theory of Practice, which I supplement when necessary with established concepts from sociolinguistics and social psychology. Bilingual schools are one of the last public spaces in the region where the use of Slovene is said to prevail, but even here it seems that Slovene is not the first choice of most pupils. We can conclude from what the young people say about their language practices that the decisive elements for the formation of an individual's (language) identity are the habitus acquired during primary socialisation and the linguistic capital acquired during the phase of secondary socialisation or formal education. The current relative values of different languages in Austrian Carinthia as determined by their use are, of course, not set in stone, but it seems that that any change would require active language policies.