Even the simplest of spoken statements may provide far more information about the speaker - his social standing, his immediate situation, his relationship with his audience - than he might ever suspect.sociolinguistics focuses on all the varied aspects of the social organization of speech. We share a linguistic repertoire with members of our social networks (and failure to "fit in" linguistically may have far-reaching consequences); we also alter our speech patterns according to the specific social situation.

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This text includes a selection of commissioned and classic articles that introduce a range of theories of second language acquisition and the contested explanations of effective language learning.

The focus in this book is on learners experiences using Welsh outside class but the issues discussed have implications for a wide range of other situations where the population is bilingual or multilingual and interaction takes place in a language of wider communication.