Abstract

This article investigated the language shifting and maintenance in daily life conversation of family resided in USA. The sources of data involved the participation of three generations, 7 members total in number, including 4 adults and 3 children. The observation was of observer participant type. The family was observed through video call, continually 10 hours a day in natural environment during 5 days period. Moreover, the interview was continued for 20 minutes, from 4 members of the family, 2 members from 1st generation and 2 members from 2nd. The collected data revealed that the second generation preferred to talk in L2-English but they switched to LI -Punjabi/Urdu when needed. First generation, the older ones talk in LI Punjabi /Urdu. They rarely switched to L2 to facilitate their younger generation mostly they tried to maintain their LI by code switching when interacting with each other even with their young family members. It was a pure qualitative study. Findings suggest that the preference to L2 was to succeed their younger generation in their academic and social life. They consider their social and economic benefits more important than their ethnic linguistic identity.

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