This volume is a selection of papers prepared for a conference on sociolinguistically oriented language surveys organized by the Center for Applied Linguistics and held in New York in September 1971. The purpose of the conference was to review the role and function of such language surveys in the light of surveys conducted in recent years. The selection is intended to give a general picture of such surveys to the layman and to reflect the aims of the conference. The papers deal with scope, problems, uses, organization, and techniques of surveys, and descriptions of particular surveys, and are mostly related to the Eastern Africa Survey. The authors of these selections are: Charles A. Ferguson, Ashok R. Kelkar, J. Donald Bowen, Edgar C. Polome, Sirarpi Ohannessian, Gilbert Ansre, Probodh B. Pandit, William D. Reyburn, Bonifacio P. Sibayan, Clifford H. Prator, Mervyn C. Alleyne, M. L. Bender, R. L. Cooper and Joshua A. Fishman. (Author/AM)