LANGUAGE: Competence - Change - Contact. SPRACHE: Kompetenz - Kontakt - Wandel

Who has the right to say what language will be taught in schools, or what kind of language will be published in the press and spoken in the media in a world where languages constantly change? The articles in this collection refer to several language areas in Europe, from North (Scandinavia) to South (Spain / Balkan) and East (Ukraine / Russia) as well as the Center (Austria / Germany) and include one contribution on Canada. They present different cases of language competence and its assessment, languages in contact in different settings, and contributions on language change which are related to applied linguistics both from a sociolinguistic and an educational linguistic point of view. As speakers of different languages interact, language contact will occur. Language contact will necessarily lead to language change for both parties involved in such contact. As languages change, the issue of competence becomes problematic.