Bilingualism and Identity

Sociolinguists have been pursuing connections between language and identity for several decades. But how are language and identity related in bilingualism and multilingualism? Mobilizing the most current methodology, this collection presents new research on language identity and bilingualism in three regions where Spanish coexists with other languages. The cases are Spanish-English contact in the United States, Spanish-indigenous language contact in Latin America, and Spanish-regional language contact in Spain. This is the first comparativist book to examine language and identity construction among bi- or multilingual speakers while keeping one of the languages constant. The sociolinguistic standing of Spanish varies among the three regions depending whether or not it is a language of prestige. Comparisons therefore afford a strong constructivist perspective on how linguistic ideologies affect bi/multilingual identity formation.

Debra A. Friedman, Michigan State University, in Studies in Second Language Acquisition 32: 147-148:
This volume can be commended for its wide-ranging and thoughtful examination of crucial issues such as attitudes toward nonnative, nonstandard, or contact language varieties that have relevance beyond the Spanish-speaking world. As such, it makes a worthy contribution to the growing body of literature on bilingualism, language learning, and identity.