‘Linguistic repertoire’ refers the group of languages that an individual speaker has learned in
their lifetime. This included, broadly speaking, the speaker’s ‘first language’ or ‘native
language’ and all the styles and registers that are included within proficiency in the native
language. It may also include regional or standardized varieties of the first language that
come from membership to certain speech communities (defined, for example, by educational
level, social class, ethnicity, etc.). The individual speaker’s linguistic repertoire is not static,
but can change over the course of the speaker’s life as they learn new languages or lose
proficiency in second languages.
In an essay of 400 – 1000 words describe your linguistic repertoire and the speech
communities that you are a member of. Be sure to take a full account of all the varieties —
standard, non-standard and standardising — that you are able to use in both speech and
writing. This may include varieties, registers or styles that have passive bilingualism in (i.e.
you can understand, but cannot speak or write) and second languages that you haves studied
formally. Furthermore, when describing speech communities keep in mind that membership is
achieved through processes of socialization; birth in a particular location does not define the
speech community that you are a member of.
Sample Solution