The contribution summarises the results of my doctoral thesis research about communicative practices (language choice) among adolescents in Austrian Carinthia. I present the findings by referencing Bourdieu's Theory of Practice, which I supplement with established concepts from sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and psychology (The Big 5 personality test).
The contribution summarises the results of my doctoral thesis 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 with established concepts from sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and psychology (The Big 5 personality test). The main purpose of the research is to introduce an interdisciplinary contribution through an eclectic approach to the choice of theoretical and methodological starting points, which offers a more diverse view of the dialectic between social and individual within the framework of sociolinguistic research in multilingual areas. With the interdisciplinary synthesis of speech acts (choice of language for communication (1) with classmates of different linguistic background, (2) with teachers during classes and (3) with a administrator in the public office, where Slovene is also one of the legal possible choices), I wanted to find out whether or not the language choice is affected only by the social environment or also by the personal differences between individuals. Differences between individuals are expressed not only by different (linguistic) socialization, which results in different habitus and different form of capital (Bourdiue's theory of practice), but also by individual differences in the speaker's personality traits (according to the Big Five personality traits). An analysis of responses to the question about the language that students use in these unformal, semi-formal and formal settings reveals a wide range of factors, that impact the choice to use a minority language. The most decisive factor seems to be the language competence, but also other factors – most of them are causally related to use and consequently to linguistic competence – are discussed: confident language use, evaluation of language (prestige of dialect and standard form of minority language), willingness to communicate, national / ethnic / regional identity, etc.
