Documenting sociolinguistic variation in lesser-studied languages presents methodological challenges, but also offers important research opportunities. In this paper we examine three key methodological challenges commonly faced by researchers who are outsiders to the community. We then present practical solutions for successful variationist…

Describes 11 common dogmas of understanding (convictions that are impervious to evidence) that have led researchers to ignore or dismiss many features of everyday language. Discusses evidence against them, and some of the dangers they pose for the study of understanding. Argues that using language is fundamentally social, and that social features…

Reviews some problems which have risen from the neglect of actual language behavior data in favor of data comprised solely of intuitions as to sentences' grammaticality. Discusses a study of syntactic variation across sex in Japanese as an example of research using socially situated real speech. (EKN)

Discusses some of the problems inherent in traditional methods of acquiring data for linguistic analysis, and proposes research methods which involve questionnaires and are designed to eliminate these problems, especially where reliable intuitive data cannot be obtained. (AM)

Discusses the current meager state of knowledge of sex differentiation in language variation and concludes that poor theorizing and inadequate methodology are to blame. Describes a study of pronoun usage by male and female Japanese speakers to show that research on sex differentiation in language is possible. (EKN)

A review of the status of research on literacy concludes that vagueness and ambiguity of definition, measurement, methodology, and evaluation continue to grip the large body of literacy research, debates, and programs, with the underlying assumptions made about the concept of monolingual societies resulting in overly simplified and speculative…

As the field of sociolinguistics has emerged, its terminology, which like many other emerging disciplines contains many neologisms and new usages, has sometimes been called insensitive. This reaction may interfere with serious examination of the field's content. Areas of disagreement or dispute include terms used for the speech of black…

Attempts to tackle theoretical and empirical problems of measurement in the study of linguistic minorities from sociological and demographic perspectives. The operations of a language community, the growth of a language group, language shift, and language maintenance are addressed in terms of language community membership, current language…

Research on social markedness and second language pronunciation is reviewed, and some general conclusions are drawn. A number of issues arising from this research are identified and inherent difficulties in forming hypotheses, performing analyses, and interpreting data are discussed. (30 references) (Author/MSE)

This paper makes three arguments reaffirming the overwhelming complexities inherent in any real history of the language of blacks in North America. (1) Although the study of black English, however that term may be defined, is desirable in itself and was profitable for white linguists during the 1960s and early 1970s, it did not and never will do…

Explores the validity of Labov's (1969) "Observer Paradox," and the five axioms describing the problems involved in linguistic research, for interlanguage research. Methodological remedies are suggested. (AM)

Challenges existing assumptions about literacy and literacy learning in an effort to both demonstrate and explore the transactive potentials of theory and methodology in the study of literacy. (HOD)

Research on language in Hong Kong is reviewed, focusing on work in the areas of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and survey research. Discourse analysis studies examined include research on classroom language, discourse in other settings such as work environments, business telephone communication, news media discourse, and student language…

This article describes some of the frustrating obstacles that a scholar researching the field of applied Chicano linguistics is likely to encounter. Good scholarship in this field is found primarily in dissertations. Sources of bad scholarship (i.e., lacking is scholarly rigor) include theses done in colleges of education, articles in teachers'…

The participants in this conference (A.V. Cicourel, I. Deutscher, S. Ervin-Tripp, J. Gumperz, D. Hymes, E. Sibley, H. Phillips, and R.B. Anderson) discussed the processes involved in eliciting verbal information, especially in cross-cultural studies. The four principal topics of their discussions were: (1) the ethnography of asking questions, (2)…