Module 2: Glossary

I. Assimilation: “process of giving up non-dominant languages and cultural practices to increasingly exclusive participation in dominant linguist and cultural practices” (de Jong, 2011, p 253).

II. Americanization movement: “efforts that focused on helping immigrants learn English and become ‘American’ in cultural practice; this emphasis was on assimilation” (de Jong, 2011, p. 253)

III. Community: “includes neighborhoods, schools, and peers, social networks, and participation in local religious institutions” (Potowsky, 2013, p.327)

IV. Family: group of two people or more living together in a household, and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.)

V. Language loyalty: when language is the pre-eminent badge that expresses a sense of belonging to a national group. Language comes to gain and sustain language group cohesion (Baker, 2006).

VI. Language choice: a bilingual or multilingual person’s decision to speak a certain language in a certain situation (Department of linguistics, 2011).

VII. Language prestige: language that has high standard or respect in a community (Department of linguistics, 2011)

VII. Language policies: formal and informal decisions about language use; including laws, regulations, and statutes, as well as practices (de Jong, 2011).

IX. Linguistic shift: the replacement of one language by another as the primary means of communication and socialization within a community (Mesthrie, Swann, Deumert, & Leap, 2001, p. 253).

X. Network: “a group of people who know each other in some capacity and with differing degrees of intensity” (Stoessel, p.95)

XI. Social network: “informal social relationships contracted by and individual” (Milroy, as cited in Stoessel, 2002, p.95)