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= Social Domains = A social domain refers to a place or community in which language usage relates to the context of the place or community itself. As defined by Fishman, Cooper and Ma (1971), domains “are sociolinguistic contexts definable for any given society by three significant dimensions: the location, the participants and the topic”. Similarly, Bernard Spolsky defines domains as “Any defined or definable social or political or religious group or community, ranging from family through a sports team or neighborhood or village or workplace or organization or city or nation state or regional alliance”.

Social domains are relevant to the social scientific fields including anthropology, linguistics, and sociology, and other social sciences. Some examples of social domains include the domains of school, family, religion, workplace, and government.

School Domains
Schools throughout the world have a profound impact and relationship with the social domains of a country. This is because schools, through language, take on the responsibility of socializing from the family, which shape the experiences and impacts the language competence of the students. The language used as the medium of instruction in schools is decided based on the desires of the education and governmental systems. So while children learn different vernacular varieties or dialects at home, schools also have a strong influence on the development of their linguistic skills. Specifically, language varieties spoken at home are unwritten so schools work to teach the accepted, written form of the language. These actions impact the inclusion, acceptance, and interactions of students. In fact, by using Bucholtz and Hall’s tactics of intersubjectivity, Shanan Fitts the role that “adequation and distinction”, “authentication and denaturalization”, and “authorization and illegitimation” interact linguistically in school domains. For adequation and distinction, a student is able to identify and relate to other students through their linguistic similarities or differences, respectively. Additionally, authentication and denaturalization allows students to categorize their linguistic, and consequently, cultural identities either as natural or learned. Lastly, authorization and illegitmation are used in school domains through institutional or ideological methods to either support or oppose a specific linguistic practice depending on the goal of the school. Because of the differences in vernacular or dialects between home and schools, a linguistic gap is created for children, which is greatly affected by language education policies. Spolsky argues that schools should take this gap into consideration when deciding the medium of instruction and linguistic goals for themselves. Specifically, Spolsky highlights the controversy of incorporating a mother-tongue education in schools, which looks to work closely with the linguistic varieties students bring from home to meet the linguistic goal of the school. However, having teachers adapt to the different linguistic varieties in their classrooms can be difficult as well. There are a variety of methods used by schools to facilitate the transition between home languages, dialects, or vernaculars to the desired school language. One method used typically in the British colonial education system starts students' educations by teaching in their home language, transitions by introducing the official language, and ends by shifting towards total instruction in that official language. Contrastingly, systems like the French and Portuguese colonial models along with the English Only movement in the United States immediately begin instruction in the official language under the assumption that the students will learn it through immersion. There are a wide range of methods that fall in between the above mentioned strategies, such as establishing communication in home languages, dialects, or vernaculars and using material in the official language or also making an effort to maintain proficiency in a home language while transitioning them to the official language. Schools also impact language acquisition policies. If a country has a bilingual or multilingual policy or goal, schools are usually expected to help in the development of the other language(s). This may be done for two reasons: 1) teaching a major international language or a neighboring country's language can help incorporate students effectively and successfully into the globalized world; or 2) the teachings of minority or indigenous language(s) can help elevate them in a country to work towards diversity and inclusion.

Family Domains
Individuals modify the way they speak by changing things like vocabulary, sounds and syntax of their speech according to who it is they are talking to and the circumstances and surroundings of their conversation. The social domain of ‘families’ is not the exception to this occurring. The domain of ‘family’ becomes constructed around the domain of ‘home’, which varies from family to family. Different factors contribute to what a family domain becomes. Factors can include social class, one vs two parent home, the number of children in the home, etc. Considering that many factors can contribute to this domain is can be thought that the variation within the domain there is no real language management but rather influences of the practices and ideologies that the family has. With language in the context of the family social domain being a choice it should be taken into consideration that the use of the speech within the domain by its speakers can be reliant on one of three things if not all or a mixture. The three things being; the proficiency of a speaker for the language being used in this domain, the speaker’s willingness to use the language in which they are most strong in in order to be able to obtain a form of advantage, and or their will of creating advantages for themselves when settling or obeying to the wishes of others. This domain is one that is very important when it comes to language but more specifically language policy. Without this domain there would be loss in the way that information is transmitted through language. The three-generation theory argues that without family there is a loss of ‘natural intergenerational transmission. This being because in the three generation theory it is argued that the first generation of an immigrant family contributes by adding relevant information about the language that is present in the environment that the family is in. It also argues that the second generation which is typically the one that involves people who are growing up bilingual while by the third generation involves those who are monolinguals but know very few about their language and the culture of it. Without this that is referred to as ‘natural intergenerational transmission’ their will be language loss and the domain of family along with it would become lost because it is a key factor to the social domains of language and particularly the domain of family.

Religious Domains
Language choice varies among religious affiliations and congregations. Islam and Judaism traditionally provide religious texts in the original languages of Arabic and Hebrew, respectively. Islam has strict standards in place regarding the required use of Arabic in the religious domain, even if the user’s mother tongue is not Arabic, while Judaism accepts translations of religious texts, although Hebrew is still central. These are distinct languages that have specific uses within the domain of religion. Variation of language ideologies within the domain of religion, even within a single religion, is common. Some Christian groups promote translating the Bible into the vernacular, while some Roman Catholics prefer to keep the Bible in Latin and likely only speak Latin in this context. On a micro-scale, a single person might use various languages in practice while praying, singing hymns, reading religious texts, confessing, or attending religious services. Knowing which language to use is dependent on the broader domain as well as the expectations of the religion itself, place of worship one attends, or specific congregation.

Workplace Domains
The workplace is a setting where everyone needs to corporate with each other to get a task done. There are many different types of workplaces. There are different language norms depending on the workplace and the position of the people in conversation. The office workplace is a professional setting where more sophisticated words and different tones of voice are being used. Sometimes there are handbooks with the rules of the office everyone must obey including sections on language. Leaders in the workplace which are generally managers not only put on the linguistic model for their workers but also get to initiate the pathway. The more motivational leaders are the more passionate and effective the workers become. They use motivational language in conversation and meetings to provide an effective environment to work in. They act as enforcers to use speech to connect with everyone. There is also communication used through technology such as emails that are very professional. There are different audiences as well as conversations at work.

Government Domains
As a Social Domain, Governments and their affiliated agencies can generally be defined as businesses or work places. Just as businesses are growing ever more diverse in our globalizing world, governments, too, are adapting, expanding, and developing on various social practices to create social domains within their structure that are conducive to an appropriate atmosphere for what they want to accomplish and the presence they wish to portray to their superiors, subordinates, constituents, and possibly even foreign bodies. Some governments and their affiliates may have strict limitations on what is considered appropriate topics of conversation in the workplace while others may be more accepting of more diverse forms and topics of conversation. Governments also tend to have a specific language, or certain languages, which is considered appropriate to speak in the workplace. This can be as rigid as disallowing all non-conforming languages from the workplace or as loose as having a general rule of thumb such as certain languages being okay for interpersonal communication, but official documentation being required to be submitted in a specific language.

Semantic Domains
A semantic domain applies to word usage such as choosing to say ‘hoagie’ instead of ‘sandwich’, with this choice not necessarily being dependent on one's social domain, but rather contextual relevance. Another example is choosing not to say “It is raining cats and dogs outside” when it is just drizzling. Semantic domains involve using words that have the same meaning and also certain language the speaker is familiar with.

Speech Communities
A speech community is a group of people who share the same linguistic ideologies. Speech communities can be more or less inclusive than social domains, for example a group of German-speakers getting coffee together can constitute a speech community as can an entire city.