The standard language norm is established not only via school and mass media, but also via creators and language editors of prose fiction. The object of the research project is the ideas and practices of prose fiction language editing in Lithuania after the restoration of independence, in comparison with such ideas and practices during the Soviet rule. I am going to analyse the ideas and practices of correcting linguistic variants and the understanding of ‘good style’ that derives from them, as well as how editors and writers perceive their roles in the publishing process and the perception of literary fiction as a means to spread ‘good’ language. ►

Crucial political turning-point of Lithuania two decades ago concurred with the worldwide technological developments and expansion of the globalization processes. Certainly it brought a number of significant changes into the sociolinguistic landscape of Lithuania. The need for and benefits of an international language for information access and external communication rapidly increased the demand of learning English. Additionally, the English language has gained noticeable symbolic power as a linguistic resource that ensures a speaker the most profitable social mobility and serves as a means of identity expression. The project focuses on the social value of the English language in Lithuania after the country regained independence in 1990. ►

The Lithuanian normative tradition has a deeply entrenched negative attitude towards Vilnius speech as well as the language of Vilnius youth: it is often regarded as incorrect and nonstandard semi-language. From the scientific point of view, however, any language variety is a unique and valuable construct of historical circumstances and the speech community. Today's Vilnius is the largest city of Lithuania and undoubtedly the strongest political, administrative and cultural centre of attraction. Even though Vilnius dialect played no major role in the creation of the standard language, it might be seen as a prestige variety in our speech community today. ►

Youth language researchers perceive adolescents as skilled social actors who use a wide array of linguistic features, among which features of different languages are significant. Adolescents use those features (Danish teenagers use Arabic features or British youth often inserts German features) playfully, creatively, to achieve their communicative aims as best they can. Youth language reasearches employ the concept of polylingualism to refer to such linguistic practice of late modern adolescents.  Even though polylanguaging youth has been much investigated across many European cities, no significant analysis has yet been undertaken of the polylingual aspect of Vilnius adolescents’ language. It is likely that Vilnius, as a multicultural and multilingual city, is an interesting niche for the analysis of polylingual youth practice. ►

The informants of the study was/were one professional group – TV and radio journalists. They are interesting for us as public speakers who are usually expected to produce an ideal standard language. However, the standard is changing: it is becoming less official, the variety of genres increases, the media is trying to speak the language of its audiences. In other words, diversity is a new norm. Does it mean that the ideal of the standard language implemented for a hundred years in Lithuania is not relevant in the public sphere anymore? What kind of language, according to the professional public speakers, is most suitable for  creating the image of the contemporary mass media? ►