Sometimes the choice of items depends on the conceptual nature of the study. A good proxy for language usage is a set of items measuring the amount of English or Spanish spoken in different situations. While other context-specific items can be included, these should suffice to provide an indication of the prevalence of Spanish and English spoken in key daily life contexts. The reader can see that by having a separate scale for each item, a respondent could give a high score to all items. That would demonstrate a relatively high degree of acculturation into the second language while at the same time preserving the first language 4 .
Media behaviors Media exposure tends to be even more amenable to continuous measurement.
Other media behaviors, particularly for print, can also be included. Again, the nature of the study generally influences which items may be most relevant. Clearly, the resulting mix of number of hours of exposure to each medium and language can be in any combination. That allows for the measurement of any degree of acculturation or assimilation. This is an interesting indicator of exposure to the US mainstream.