ABSTRACT
The aim of this book is to offer students the opportunity to explore for themselves a wide range of sociolinguistic issues relating to the French language. It is intended principally for undergraduate students of French who have a reasonably advanced knowledge of the language, but who may have little or no knowledge of linguistics in general or sociolinguistics in particular. Relevant theoretical concepts are introduced where necessary, but the emphasis throughout is on encouraging readers to think for themselves and to tackle specific problems. To this end, each chapter is punctuated by a series of practical tasks and discussion questions designed to stimulate readers to pursue in greater depth issues raised in the text. Tasks include small-scale activities – working on definitions of concepts, commenting on accounts of particular linguistic situations or interpreting data presented in tabular form – and more wide-ranging reflective exercises – essays, projects, etc.
