The relationship between communicative competence and language use in a multicultural environment: The case of Slovene Istria

The paper focuses on bilingualism among the Slovene majority in Slovene Istria approximately 50 years after the Italian community living there were granted official minority status. This empirical research shows a high level of Slovene-Italian bilingualism in the observed population. It reveals that a high level of communicative competence in one language entails a high level of communicative competence in the other language. Another significant finding is that the younger age groups of the observed population are characterised by a higher level of communicative competence in both Slovene and Italian in comparison to the older age groups. The key factors of influence are the opportunities for bilingual education in the school system and the fact that the younger generations are more influenced by Italian media. Age, however, does not influence language use; the younger age groups use Italian very rarely and no more often than the other age groups. Therefore, it can be concluded that language use is not so much affected by the level of communicative competence, but rather primarily by the number of opportunities to use a language. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.