Abstract
In recent years, there has been much research in the rapidly expanding field of bilingualism. The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of the relationship which exists between bilingualism and cultural identity development in adolescents. In an ever-shrinking world, it is becoming increasingly common for individuals from distinctly different ethnic, cultural and linguistic backgrounds to coexist in a single mixed society. As adolescence is a period of drastic formation and transformation, it is critical to understand the impact of existence as a member of multiple linguistic groups on the development of the understanding of one’s own position within a culture. Based upon an integrative analysis of case studies conducted in a variety of distinct cultural environments throughout the world, conclusions are drawn as to the interplay between language and identity, and potential positive and negative factors affecting the development of a healthy, stable bicultural/bilingual identity are identified and examined.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (linked here). By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are available for wide dissemination at no cost to readers, with proper attribution (acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal), in educational and other non-commercial settings. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
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