St. Cloud State University theRepository at St. Cloud State Culminating Projects in English Department of English 12-2017 "Where Did You Leave the Somali Language?" Language Usage and Identity of Somali Males in America Ali Hassan St. Cloud State University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds Recommended Citation Hassan, Ali, ""Where Did You Leave the Somali Language?" Language Usage and Identity of Somali Males in America" (2017). Culminating Projects in English. 106. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds/106 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at theRepository at St. Cloud State. It has been accepted for inclusion in Culminating Projects in English by an authorized administrator of theRepository at St. Cloud State. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. “Where did you leave the Somali Language?” Language usage and identity of Somali Males in America by Ali Hassan A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of St. Cloud State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English: Teaching English as a Second Language December, 2017 Thesis Committee: Michael Schwartz, Chairperson Choonkyong Kim Rami Amiri 2 Abstract Research in second language teaching and learning has many aspects to focus on, but this paper will focus on the sociolinguistic issues related to language usage and identity. Language usage is the lens that is used to understand the identity of Somali males in America. Language usage in social contexts gives us the opportunity to learn the multiple identities of Somali males in America.