Inese Ozolina

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how intercultural communication is affected by language use in Latvia and to show that in accordance with theories of D.L.Horowitz and P.R.Brass (Horowitz, 1985; Brass, 1991) the question of language is a question of conflict in Latvia. The empirical base for this report is the survey "Towards a civic society" conducted by the Baltic Data House. In the second analysis of empirical data, author is trying to show the correlation between language proficiency, language use and intercultural communication, and the hypothesis of the report is that the question of language is a question of conflict, because the language hierarchy is changing in Latvia.