ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a number of methodological considerations in researching the Arabic sociolinguistic situation. It provides the main methods used in researching the areas under study: diglossia; language attitudes; social identities; language variation; and code switching (CS). The chapter focuses on a number of methodological issues that are pertinent to the Arabic sociolinguistic situation and re-examines the manifestations of sociolinguistic condition in the Arabic-speaking communities due to the changing nature of language and social reality. It examines the main challenges surrounding the process of selecting and empirically capturing the social antecedents of language variation and change. It highlights the need to clarify the mechanisms used to demarcate mixed codes and define their social functions. The chapter presents that studying speech tokens rather than reported language choices is critical for avoiding the pitfall of mismatch between reported and actual language choice. It concentrates on selection of fieldwork as a general methodology for examining a number of sociolinguistic patterns in Arabic-speaking communities.
