Heritage language socialization at work: Spanish in Miami

Abstract In recent decades, the increasingly blurred boundaries between work, home, and various other spheres of social life have brought greater complexity to notion workplace. many contemporary workplace environments in U.S., demand for Spanish is unequivocal uncontested; some areas, a de facto requirement. Because U.S. Latinx bilinguals show broad preference English lack formal education Spanish, they may feel challenged meet language demands particularly where specialized vocabulary or registers are concerned. Carried out highly dynamic bilingual context Miami, this study posed following questions: Do adult heritage speakers Miami – majority population speaks appear draw linguistic benefits from participation local labor market? Does potential curtail loss? To answer these questions, semi-structured interviews were carried with Miami. Their personal accounts socialization suggest that use situated, localized discourse practice depends largely on individuals involved. Despite uncontested value speak it most settings, conscious choice do so remains individual. The participants’ related experiences reveal importance speaker agency manifest engender more positive orientations toward as well active during adulthood.