English-language streaming content has fundamentally changed how young people in Austria learn and use the language, a study has shown.
Sociolinguist Julia Davydova from the University of Education (PH) Vorarlberg found that many teenagers are no longer traditional learners, memorising vocabulary and grammar; instead, they are increasingly using English as a supplementary language.
“When one constantly consumes content in a language, it affects the brain and the psycholinguistic reality – one becomes increasingly bilingual,” Davydova explained.
Her research focused on Generation Z to investigate how and where English is spreading, a facet often overlooked in previous studies. She surveyed 630 teenagers in Vorarlberg, aged 14 to 18, about their language use and media habits as part of a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
The findings are striking: nearly 57% of respondents reported using English daily online, with TikTok (65.9%) leading the way, followed by YouTube (51.3%) and Facebook and X at 47.5%. Additionally, more than half of the respondents watch English-language films and series two to three times a week. Notably, popular shows include classics like “Friends,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Peaky Blinders,” which resonate with Millennials and older generations.
Furthermore, over half of those surveyed use English in private conversations alongside other languages – 25% do so daily with friends at school, while 19.5% engage in English with close friends and family. “It has become evident that there is a very strong correlation between the use of English on social media platforms and in spontaneous interactions,” Davydova noted. The study also highlighted a link between everyday English usage and watching series in their original English versions.
These results suggest that English is increasingly infiltrating traditional areas of native languages, particularly in private conversations, across several Western European countries. Comparing the findings to a similar survey conducted in Mannheim seven years ago with a cohort ten years older, Davydova discovered that informal English usage in daily life has risen from 10% to 22.5%. “This means that we can observe a noticeable increase in the use of English in daily speech practices within a short time frame and among a portion of younger individuals from the same generation,” she stated.
However, the study has its limitations. It relies solely on self-reported data, and further research is needed to understand how informal English usage manifests—whether through borrowing words, alternating sentences, or conducting entire conversations in English. Davydova plans to explore the relationship between “Affective Engagement,” which relates to emotional reactions to English-language media and attachment to characters, and individuals’ perceived competence in English.