1. COMMUNITY MEMBERSHIP Language and Society 8 Mar 2011

2. Speech Communities  A community is a group of people with a shared set of activities, practices, beliefs, and social structures.  A speech community is a group of people who share similar ideas, uses, and norms of language. - An African-American Church-Baristas/customers at a café - A group of stockbrokers-World of Warcraft players

3. Speech Communities: Journal Response  What communities do you belong to?  Do you consider yourself part of multiple speech communities?  Choose one of your communities to describe more in depth: Who forms a part of this community? What do you share? What connects you as a group? What is this community's purpose? Where does this community spend time? What activities do you do? What are some specific words, phrases, or language that this group uses?