On the status of Czech in Austria: an analysis of the demand for Czech in Vienna with special regard to the relationship between language, economy and culture

The aim of this study is to describe the status of the Czech language in Austria with special regard to the relationships between language and economy. The work is focused on the position of Czech among other foreign languages in the field of school education, and generally its position on the foreign-language-market in Austria. The final part of the thesis illustrates the demand for Czech language in Vienna. The research is based on examination of teaching Czech language at schools, high schools, universities and 15 different language schools and institutes in Vienna, all randomly selected from the spectrum of adult-education institutions. The interpretation of the results is party based on the theory of different languagevalue ascribed to individual languages and partly on information derived form the analysis of the media content. My interpretation further draws on the statistics of foreign language teaching in Austria released by the Austrian Language Competence Center (Österreichisches Sprachenkompetenzzentrum) and the Austrian Ministry of Education (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur). The economic indicators of the Austrian foreign trade balance in the last five years are accessible on the web pages of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer Österreich). According to..