Ahearn Chapter 5

The reading by Laura Ahearn gives an overview of the challenges that are associated with
identifying communities of language users as objects of linguistic and social analysis. The
author argues that in order to have language there must be a community of speakers. An
important source of evidence for the argument is that changes in language are due to being the
product of special forces, such as a language community. She also states that an advantage to the
concept of community is that the concept of community of practice helps researchers produce
practice-based, ethnographic studies that illustrate the emergent nature of communities and the
inseparability of language from actual social contexts. I enjoyed and agreed with the piece
because it showcases that language doesn’t official become a language without having a group of
speakers engaging in that language, and the reading also showcased how this concept can be
applied to other social groups and not just language.

Ahearn Chapter 6
The reading by Laura Ahearn talks about multilingualism and globalization and how the
two correlate together due to the migration of people from other countries. A central argument of
the piece is that globalization has led to increases in migration and developments in technology,
languages, ideas, and mixture of languages. Evidence that the author uses is that globalization
has led in many cases to centralization and standardization in the form of greater use of dominant
languages such as English, but it has also led to high rates of migration, resulting in greater
decentralization and linguistic diversity in more communities than ever before. Globalization
also causes losses in language as well as more speakers of another language. I enjoyed this
article because it showcased how globalization caused loss of language which also caused loss in
culture as well. I also enjoyed the article because it showed the cause and effect of
multilingualism.

Zentella
The reading by Ana Celia Zentella talks about code switching, and how language
structures come about when being bilingual. A central argument of the article is all native
speakers demonstrate a tacit cultural knowledge of how to speak their language appropriately in
different speech situations while still keeping with their community’s way of speaking. Evidence
is that bilinguals alternate between their native language and other languages in their repertoire.
The author also states that bilingual children have 2 grammar in which they interchange
depending on the context. I enjoyed this reading because it showcased the correlation between
language and culture and how culture has such a vast influence on language.

Conclusion
All of these readings tie together because they display the effects that globalization had
on languages, and how this also effected culture as well. These readings also analyzed the
benefits of being multilingual and bilingual and the context in which they are used. These article
also gave an in depth look of code switching and how it is embedded culturally, such as when to
use Spanglish and so forth. Furthermore, these articles showcase how language is a community
and group effort, and how changes in language basically comes from usage from social forces.