An assessment of language dominance among Turkish-English bilinguals: The case of the Ahıska Turks in the Us

Abstract

Today living in ten different countries, the Ahıska Turks have had to leave their lands and immigrate to different places. As a consequence of these migrations they did compulsorily or sometimes voluntarily as in the case of their migration to the US, they have encountered different cultures and languages/dialects. Some of the Ahıska Turks, today, live in the US. Since they have been living in the US for more than a decade, they have adjusted to the way of life in the US culturally and linguistically alike. Thanks to their previous experiences, they have learned English and become bilingual/multilingual. The aim of this study was to measure the language dominance among the Ahıska Turks. 125 Ahıska Turks (nfemale = 42 and nmale = 83), living in the United States of America, Ohio, consisted of the sample of the survey. The Bilingual Language Profile was employed to measure the language dominance and the SPSS was used to analyze the data obtained. According to the findings, the level of education, employment, age, language use, language proficiency, and language attitude of the participants were significant for the dominant language. The results were discussed within the framework of the existing literature on language dominance and suggestions for the Ahıska Turks living in the United States of America were put forward.