Vernacular orientation
Vernacular orientation refers to the status that a language is afforded by one of its mother-tongue speakers (Tiessen, 2003). This status is exhibited through the sociolinguistic behaviours of a mother-tongue speaker. A speaker who exhibits positive vernacular orientation is one who exhibits a preferred status for their mother tongue in such things as patterns of language use, language attitudes, social networks and even levels of language proficiency. Likewise, a speaker who exhibits negative vernacular orientation is one who exhibits a preferred status for a language other than their mother tongue in these areas of sociolinguistic behaviour. An example of research into vernacular orientation as expressed in a community can be found at [1].