Discourse ‘like’ and social identity – a case study of Poles in Ireland

Ireland experienced momentous change in the last decade and a half. Migrants now make up a significant percentage of the population and the question of integration continues to be pertinent. One indicator of integration is language, and the fluency with which an L2 speaker uses L1 discourse markers indicates how integrated he/she is in the local community (Sankoff et al. 1997). This paper analyses discourse like and its use by Polish speakers of L2 Irish English. Our research shows that speakers follow Irish English patterns, but there is a high degree of interspeaker variation. By drawing on qualitative data, we attempt to illustrate some possible reasons for this, including the potential of this feature as a tool in identity construction.