As is well-known, the term "Applied Linguistics" has acquired, in the
literature, both a narrow and a broad interpretation. In its narrow interpretation,
the term has come to refer to the application of the results of
theoretical linguistic research to the teaching and learning of foreign and
second languages. In its broad interpretation, on the other hand, "Applied
Linguistics" refers to the application of linguistic research to the solution of
practical, educational and social problems of all types. In the title of this
book, Applied Sociolinguistics, (used here, we believe, for the first time),
the term "applied" is employed in the second, wider sense. This book is an
attempt to present information on the ways in which sociolinguistic findings
and sociolinguistic insights can be and have been of assistance in the tackling
of real-world problems.
As a field of study involving the interaction of language and society,
sociolinguistics has naturally been a form of linguistics which has typically
been more "applied" than most. We believe, nevertheless, that it is perfectly
legitimate to point to a distinction between "pure" or "theoretical"
sociolinguistics, on the one hand, and its applications, on the other. Sociolinguistics
is a science which has among its objectives (some would say its
only objective) the achievement of a greater understanding of the nature of
language, as well as (others would say), and at least in some of its manifestations,
a greater understanding of the nature of society. At its most linguistic,
sociolinguistics is a way of doing linguistics, a methodology referred to by
William Labov as "secular linguistics". And even at its most social and least
linguistic, sociolinguistics is a subject which has some linguistic objectives.
"Applied sociolinguistics", however, is clearly to be interpreted as re