Sociolinguistics: An Introduction aims to convey to students core sociolinguistic knowledge, basic sociolinguistic research skills, and an enthusiasm for sociolinguistics as an interest and a field. The book has a research activity emphasis, drawing on the author's own long and active involvement in sociolinguistic research, which provides an invaluable hands-on approach to learning sociolinguistics. In addition, the content material in each chapter will be illustrated with a case study on the topic, which will give students the opportunity to see what kind of research has been done on this topic. These approaches, combined with broad coverage of the area which includes both macro issues such as the social distribution of languages in a society as well as the detailed descriptions involved in dialectology, and an emphasis on issues of language and discourse as major and active constituents of social life, will create a distinctive textbook for the undergraduate market.
