2000 0-7734-7796-9 This study is unique in that it examines latter generation ethnic Americans, as opposed to recent immigrants, and their sense of ethnic self-identification as it relates to their use of limited colloquial ethnic phrases and words, as opposed to their fluency in their ethnic native tongue. It uses Correlational Analyses to identify relationships among the language use and ethnic self-identification variables, and multiple regression analyses were used to determine predicting variables for ethnic identification and the degree to which respondents felt close to their ethnic heritage when using ethnic words and/or phrases.