ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains what prompted the author to do research on bilingual couple talk. It outlines the author’s theoretical framework, which, among others, includes a crucial premise that “identity mediates language use, and ideology mediates identity”. The book provides the readers with definitions of the main terms, such as “majority language,” “minority language,” “language maintenance” and “language shift”. It explores how national identities, native and nonnative speaker status, and ideologies of cross-cultural couplehood are played out in actual conversations. The book also provides the reader an interesting glimpse into the data collection details and the numerous, often unexpected, problems along the way. It describes how the bilingual couples view their cultural, national, and linguistic identities, both in public and private discourses. Hybridity, or language mixing, encompasses broader and more complex linguistic practices.
