Language Dominance And Culture Dominance: L2 Acquisition, L1 Maintenance, And Culture Identification Among Russian Immigrants In The U.S.

Abstract

This dissertation investigated the extent of L2 (English) acquisition and L1 (Russian) maintenance of two age groups of Russian immigrants in the US and examined the relationship between participants' current language dominance and culture dominance. The study also aimed at enhancing theoretical knowledge about the methodology of assessing language and culture dominance and at establishing which of the measures used here (self-reports of language proficiency, three lexical fluency tests, writing tasks, and a culture questionnaire) are the most accurate and practical for determining the more dominant language and culture. In addition to quantitative data, interviews provided insights into the participants' views and opinions on their language and culture and were used to supplement the statistical results with personal comments.The results indicate a surprisingly high level of first language and culture maintenance in the younger group together with highly successful L2 acquisition and acculturation, marking this group as rather balanced bilingually and bi-culturally. The older participants, on the other hand, clearly maintain dominance in both Russian language and Russian culture. Significant correlations established between different language proficiency measures carry methodological importance for future studies.