ABSTRACT
This chapter offers practical advice and guidance on undertaking research into issues of Englishes, discourses and identities, especially as manifested through linguistic variation. It is thus aimed primarily at final year undergraduate students masters level students researching and writing projects or dissertations. In addition to guidance on research design, it covers recent changes in technology that have revolutionised and continue to revolutionise research into language use generally. It provides guidance on the range of research methods and frameworks that you may find useful in undertaking their own research. It also includes examples of sample projects. There are many books which provide detailed guidance on how to approach research projects in sociolinguistics (e.g. Tagliamonte 2006, Clark 2007, Macaulay 2009, Sealey 2010 and Litosseliti 2010). This chapter thus aims to provide an overview on research design, appropriate methods of data collection and working with language data generally.
