In the following pages, I attempt to weave together a few of the threads that run through the complex ties between language, social interaction and social identity, the ways in which social interaction is changing and social identity and the role of language changing with it, hinting that how we see language fitting into this complex pattern helps to determine what voices are heard and what identities are made negotiable. To this end, I examine the way in which globalization has effected the nature of social interaction and group identity, the growing role of English as an international means of communication, and the way in which the ability to be heard as a legitimate speaker of a language has shifted as the nature of social interaction has changed. This inquiry is concentrated around the local site of Hyde Middle School in Cupertino, California. By alternating between written chapters and creative presentations of data from fieldwork done at Hyde Middle School, I invite the reader to contextualize discussions of broader phenomena in this specific setting.