Schoolchildren as sociolinguistic researchers

Abstract This paper discusses a recent British research project that aimed to incorporate sociolinguistic research into classroom procedures. One of the goals of the project was to enlist teachers and their students as researchers, in order to obtain systematic information on local dialect grammar. A further aim was to encourage students to explore their own reactions to linguistic diversity and to investigate for themselves different aspects of linguistic variation in their local community. The paper reports the results of work carried out by students on their personal reactions to linguistic diversity (including the correction of nonstandard forms, attitudes toward regional variation, linguistic variation as an expression of social identity) and of some empirical research that they carried out in the community. It is argued that collaboration of this kind can be of value to the sociolinguistic research community, who can obtain useful research material in this way. It is also of interest to teachers in that it challenges conventional classroom procedures by giving students the status of experts. Most importantly of all, the incorporation of sociolinguistic research in classroom procedures has an educational value for students. In the British context it can provide a range of pedagogically valid activities that can be actively promoted within the framework of the severe educational changes that are currently taking place.