Swiss Multilingualism and Global English: Bourdieusian Capitals in Contestation

Abstract

This paper reports on a small-scale research study into the beliefs of teenagers in Switzerland on Swiss national languages and their status relative to English. High school students (n = 232) in the French-speaking city of Lausanne completed a questionnaire about the economic, social, cultural and symbolic value of German, Italian and English. The data was then analysed quantitatively by computing the means, standard deviations, significance, and effect sizes, and interpreted in relation to the capitals of Bourdieu. The findings corroborate previous studies on the widespread and shared high value ascribed to English for economic, social, cultural and symbolic purposes. They also reveal, however, a solid respect and support for Swiss multilingualism. The study thus suggests that the students’ high estimation of English is not at the expense of the national languages, German and Italian. Even though students value Swiss multilingualism, they nevertheless rank the economic capital of German higher than Italian. Finally, the apparent accommodation of English beside national languages is explained in regard to the Swiss multilingual tradition.