Abstract (eng)
This study attempts to establish patterns of code choice in informal conversations among students at the upper-secondary level of Vienna Bilingual Schooling, a German-English bilingual program within the mainstream Austrian educational system. An introductory section presents concepts, models, and theories within the fields of bilingualism research, code choice, and linguistic identity. In the empirical study itself, quantitative data is collected by means of a questionnaire survey, and analyzed using multivariate analysis (multiple logistic regression). The results of this statistical procedure are discussed in light of some qualitative data. This qualitative data comes from a qualitative section on the questionnaires, as well as from observation and interviews.
The empirical study demonstrates that within the limited context of informal interactions at Vienna Bilingual Schooling, conversational partners generally arrive at a uniform code (overt accommodation), which is primarily determined by the social attributes of the participants. The home language backgrounds of speaker and addressee are the factors most predictive of code choice, followed by the educational language background of the speaker. Because of the strength of the first two variables and the numerical dominance of German language backgrounds, the predominant language in informal conversations is German. A secondary analysis on the use of mixed codes establishes that gender constellation is another salient factor in this context, with intra-gender conversations slightly favoring mixed codes, and inter-gender conversations slightly disfavoring them.
In the discussion of the results it is suggested that, in addition to the linguistic competence principle, social norms and issues of linguistic identity are important in the relationship between home language background and code choice. Network analysis is employed to show how linguistic preferences might vary at the individual level, but how an active negotiation of identity is nevertheless circumscribed by wider sociolinguistic norms.
Finally, it is proposed that Vienna Bilingual Schooling is fairly well embedded in the expanding-circle context of Austrian society, generally replicating the central norm of territorial bilingualism in informal conversations. This is interpreted as a pointer towards the development of English in the expanding circle, where its increasing use within specific domains does generally not seem to correlate with a more widespread acceptance as a vernacular language.