Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

While the focus on sociolinguistic and sociopragmatic variation is relatively new, linguistic variation continues to be an important issue that SLA research has grappled with. By linguistic variation, one understands the learner’s variable use of two or more L2 forms to express the same functional value, where one or all forms are nonnative. This chapter focuses on type II variation and presents an overview of the research findings that illuminate the challenge to the learner of developing sociolinguistic and sociopragmatic competence in the L2. While the application of sociolinguistic variationist methods to the study of type II variation has been relatively recent in SLA research, such methods have also been fruitfully used by some SLA researchers in relation to type I variation.