Milroy (in this volume) provides one general alternative approach to a
socially responsible applied discourse analysis, in her discussion of the
theoretical and practical issues raised by communicative problems. In
particular, she discusses the kind of cross-dialectal communicative problems
which are likely to have serious social consequences when professionals and
clients from different social groups and with different dialects meet in school
classrooms, doctors' surgeries, courtrooms and other comparable settings.
For case studies which analyse the discourse in such settings, and discuss
such cross-dialectal communicative problems, see Harris ( 1980) on magistrates'
courts and Malcolm (1979) on school classrooms.