Not long ago, I was watching an episode of a popular American talk show. The host took issue with a word that a colleague used; the word was socialist. The host commented on how some words have become “buzzwords”. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary provides two different definitions for “buzzword”: 1. an important-sounding usually technical word or […]
This past year, I interviewed young adult heritage language learners about their experience in learning their heritage language. They shared their failures and successes in attempting to learn their heritage language.
In second language acquisition studies, language learner identity has evolved from being spoken about with a static description based on language ability to a dynamic one that is also socially and individually constructed. Within a structuralist framework, identity is a stable or fixed state of being in which life events build upon a person’s sense […]
I think I’ve commented in past posts that I grew up with my English being questioned. It’s not that I couldn’t speak or write in the language; English is my first language and mother tongue. It’s that the variant of the language I spoke was not the variant of the majority around me. I spoke […]
“Words matter. They join into phrases which make up clauses, which build sentences, which become conversations, debates, literature, and ideas. There will continue to be disputes on how the words we say influence the way we speak.” (Why words Matter, BBC World Service)
