Is It Possible to Speak English Without Thinking American?: On Globalization and the Determinants of Cultural Assimilation

Peer Reviewed icon Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Mar 2006
Subject
Integration and Trade
Country
United States
Category
Working Papers
Based on research in linguistics and psychology I use language speech as a reflection of acculturation. I use individual and city-level data from the Lake Ontario area in Canada and study the determinants of cultural assimilation. I focus on education, age, income, and in particular, on some variables typically discussed when globalization issues come up, such as immigration, television viewing, borders, and residence history of the individuals. I find that actual contact does matter as a determinant of cultural homogenization. Virtual contact appears to be irrelevant. This finding is robust to changes in specification and to different empirical methods.