Vernacular variation in the English-speaking mass media

English is the first language in the history of the humankind that has expanded on a truly global scale (De Swaan 2001). One important consequence of this sociohistorical event is that three out of four English users have acquired it as an additional language ( Jenkins 2015). Moreover, English is not just the language of business, academia and a natural linguistic choice in contexts where speakers do not speak or understand the la nguage of the other group. Perhaps, more importantly, English has been increasingly developing into a globally available linguistic resource allowing for the propagation of the electronic mass media contents (games, films and series, social media and chats). This has become perhaps even more evident in the circumstances of social isolation underpinning the dynamics of the current COVID crisis. Adolescents, in particular, have been reported to be avid, if vulnerable, consumers of mass media products (Steinberg 2017). Against this backdrop, this FWF project sets out to explore the patterns of mass media use by secondary school students, aged 14 to 18, from 13 schools in the province of Vorarlberg, Austria. In so doing, it also investigates the patterns of sociolinguistic variation in the mass media products, such as streaming series, most frequently consumed by adolescents in English. This is important as it allows us to explore the nature of sociolinguistic inputs accompanying acquisition of a globally available foreign language English. In addition, this procedure will also inform our understanding about the extent to which media language is representative of the talk permeating day-to-day interactions of real people. It is to this hotly debated, if somewhat underresearched, sociolinguistic issue (Sayers 2014) that the current project intends to contribute. In the first step, the project will carry out a survey tapping into Vorarlberg teenagers use of mass media products. Relying on these results, we will then ascertain the two most favourite streaming series among the targeted population and perform the sociolinguistic analyses of two vernacular features. The analyses will draw on the variationist methodology (Labov 1971; Tagliamonte 2012), a quantitative method ensuring the direct comparability and replicability of sociolinguistic data. The project is carried out in close cooperation with the Education Board of Vorarlberg. References / Bibliographie De Swaan, Abram. 2001. Words of the World. Cambridge [etc.]: Polity. Jenkins, Jennifer. 2015. Global Englishes. A Resource Book for Students. London and New York: Routledge. Labov, William. 1971. Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society 1(1): 97-120. Sayers, Dave. 2014. The mediated innovation model: A framework for researching media influence in language change (Focus article). Journal of Sociolinguistics 18(2). 185212. Steinberg, Laurence. 2017. Adolescents. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Tagliamonte, Sali A. 2012. Variationist Sociolinguistics. Change, Observation, Interpretation. Malden [etc.] Wiley-Blackwell.

Main finding: This project demonstrates that English is increasingly used as part of everyday communication among adolescents in Austria, with digital media playing a central role in this development. The project investigates how English is acquired, used, and shaped in a contemporary European context by focusing on adolescents in Vorarlberg. It brings together three complementary strands of research: an analysis of language use in popular television series, a large-scale survey of adolescents' everyday use of English, and a study of learners' emotional engagement with English-language media. The findings show that English is no longer confined to formal education. A substantial proportion of adolescents report using English regularly in informal settings, including peer interactions, digital communication, and media consumption. This indicates a shift in the sociolinguistic status of English, which, for some speakers, begins to take on characteristics of a second language rather than a purely foreign language. At the same time, the project highlights the importance of qualitative aspects of exposure. It is not merely the frequency of contact with English-language media that matters, but the degree of engagement. Learners who report higher levels of emotional involvement with media content-such as identifying with characters or following narratives closely-also report higher levels of proficiency and more natural language use. This underscores the role of cognitive and affective factors in language learning. The analysis of television dialogue further shows that while scripted media reproduce certain patterns of everyday language, they do not fully capture its variability and complexity. As a result, media input can support language acquisition but does not provide a complete model of authentic language use. Taken together, the project offers a comprehensive account of how digital media environments contribute to language development. By integrating perspectives from sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and educational psychology, it provides new insights into the relationship between media exposure, language use, and learning outcomes. These findings have broader implications for language education and for understanding ongoing linguistic change in Europe. They suggest that digital media should be considered an important component of language learning environments and that increasing multilingual practices among young people are closely tied to global media consumption. These findings have practical implications. They suggest that language teaching can benefit from integrating media more consciously-not just as passive input, but as a tool for active engagement. More broadly, the results help us understand how English is spreading and evolving in Europe today, and how young people are becoming increasingly multilingual in a digital world.