In face-to-face spoken interactions, language learners must construct a meaningful message consistent with the L2 grammar, articulate it comprehensibly, and manage the aspects of oral communication that reflect speaker identity, interlocutor identities, and the characteristics of the interactional context. A lack of sociolinguistic competence can lead to a failure to convey formality, politeness, solidarity, friendship, and group membership, and this will negatively affect the communicative outcome. The current chapter examines the social and situational information one conveys through linguistic variants in speech, offering a state-of-the-art account of empirical research, including a discussion of pressing issues in the field, such as the roles of lexical frequency, geographic variation, and language attitudes, as well as the pedagogical implications of this research.
Introduction and overview
Linguistic variation and speaking in learner grammars
L2 speaking and the acquisition of sociolinguistically-variable sounds
L2 speaking and the acquisition of sociolinguistically variable morphosyntactic structures
Current issues in sociolinguistic competence and speaking
(2006) The effect of style in second language phonology: An analysis of segmental acquisition in study abroad and regular-classroom students. In C. A. Klee & T. L. Face (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (pp. 26–39). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Díaz-Campos, M., & Gradoville, M.
(2011) An analysis of frequency as a factor contributing to the diffusion of variable phenomena: Evidence from Spanish data. In L.A. Ortiz López (Ed.), Selected Proceedings of the 13th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 224–238). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
(2016) Negation in near-native French: Variation and sociolinguistic competence. Language Learning, 67, 141–170.
Dörnyei, Z., Csizer, K., & Nemeth, N.
(2006) Motivation, language attitudes and globalisation: A Hungarian perspective. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Dörnyei, Z., MacIntyre, P., & Henry, A.
(Eds.) (2015) Motivational dynamics in language learning. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Eckert, P., & Rickford, J. R.
(2001) Style and sociolinguistic variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, N. C.
Analyzing language sequence in the sequence of language acquisition: Some comments on Major and Ioup. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 361–368.
Ellis, N.C., & Collins, L.
(2009) Input and second language acquisition: The roles of frequency, form, and function introduction to the special issue. The Modern Language Journal, 93, 329–335.
(2009) Task-based language teaching: Sorting out the misunderstandings. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 19, 221–246.
Erker, D., & Guy, G. R.
(2012) The role of lexical frequency in syntactic variability: Variable subject personal pronoun expression in Spanish. Language, 88, 526–557.
(2015) Progressive constructions in native-speaker and adult-acquired Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 8, 85–133.
(2000) A new approach to the second language acquisition of copula choice in Spanish. In R. P. Leow & C. Sanz (Eds.), Spanish Applied Linguistics at the Turn of the Millennium: Papers from the 1999 Conference on the L1 & L2 Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese, (pp. 50–66). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Geeslin, K. L.
(2003) A comparison of copula choice: Native Spanish speakers and advanced learners. Language Learning, 53, 703–764.
Geeslin, K. L., & Gudmestad, A.
(2008a) The acquisition of variation in second language Spanish: An agenda for integrating the studies of the second language sound system. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5, 137–157.
Geeslin, K.L., & Gudmestad, A.
(2008b) Comparing interview and written elicitation tasks in native and non-native data: Do speakers do what we think they do? In J. Bruhn de Garavito & E. Valenzuela (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 10th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 64–77). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Geeslin, K. L., & Long, A. Y.
(2014) Sociolinguistics and second language acquisition: Learning to use language in context. London: Routledge.
Geeslin, K., Linford, B., & Fafulas, S.
(2015) Variable subject expression in second language Spanish. In A.M. Carvalho, R. Orozco, & N. Lapidus Shin (Eds.), Subject pronoun expression in Spanish: A cross-dialectal perspective (pp. 191–209). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Geeslin, K. L. & Schmidt, L. B.
(2016, October). Does context make the heart grow fonder? Linking language acquisition, language attitudes and language experience. Paper presented at the 2016 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Washington, DC: Georgetown University.
(2014) Study abroad in central Spain: The development of regional phonological features. Foreign Language Annals, 47, 97–114.
(2012) Acquiring a variable structure: An interlanguage analysis of second language mood use in Spanish. Language Learning, 62, 373–402.
Gurzynski-Weiss, L., Geeslin, K., Daidone, D., Linford, B., Long, A., Michalski, I., & Solon, M.
(2006) Incorporating linguistic variation into the classroom. In R. Salaberry & B. Lafford (Eds.), The art of teaching Spanish: Second language acquisition from research to praxis (pp. 173–191). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Linguistic constraints on the acquisition of English syllable codas by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese. Applied Linguistics, 22, 338–365.
Hay, J., & Drager, K.
(2010) Stuffed toys and speech perception. Linguistics, 48, 865–892.
(2004) Sociolinguistic variation and second language acquisition: A preliminary study of advanced learners of French. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 17, 143–165.
Howard, M., Lemée, I., & Regan, V.
(2006) The L2 acquisition of a phonological variable: The case of /l/ deletion in French. Journal of French Language Studies, 16, 1–24.
(1971) Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking. In E. Ardener (Ed.), Social anthropology and language (pp. 47–93). London: Routledge.
Jarvella, R., Bang, E., Jakobsen, A. L., & Mees, I. M.
(2001) Of mouths and men: Non-native listeners’ identification and evaluation of varieties of English. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11, 37–56.
(2017) What we gain by combining variationist and concept-oriented approaches: The case of acquiring Spanish future-time expression. Language Learning, 67(2), 461–498.
Kanwit, M., Geeslin, K.L., & Fafulas, S.
(2015) Study abroad and the SLA of variable structures: A look at the present perfect, the copula contrast, and the present progressive in Mexico and Spain. Probus, 27, 307–348.
Kanwit, M., & Solon, M.
(2013) Acquiring variation in future-time expression abroad in Valencia, Spain and Mérida, Mexico. In J.E. Aaron, J. Cabrelli Amaro, G. Lord, & A. de Prada Pérez (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 16th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 206–221). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Kennedy Terry, K. M.
(2016) Contact, context, and collocation: The emergence of sociostylistic variation in L2 French learners during study abroad. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Advance online publication.
Kinginger, C., & Farrell, K.
(2004) Assessing development of metapragmatic awareness in study abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10, 19–42.
Knouse, S. M.
(2012) The acquisition of dialectal phonemes in a study abroad context: The case of the Castilian theta. Foreign Language Annals, 45, 512–542.
(2001) Principles of linguistic change: Social factors (Vol. 2). New York, NY: Blackwell.
(1998) National stereotypes and language attitudes: The perception of British, American and Australian language and culture in Denmark. Language and Communication, 18, 251–274.
Lafford, B.A., & Uscinski, I.
(2013) Study abroad and second language Spanish. In K. L. Geeslin (Ed.), The handbook of Spanish second language acquisition (pp. 386–403). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lambert, W., Hodgson, R., Gardner, R. & Fillenbaum, S.
(1960) Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60, 44–51.
(2002) Acquisition de la variation socio-stylistique dans l’interlangue d’apprenants hibernophones de franc¸ais: Le cas de on et nous. Marges Linguistiques, 4, 56–67.
(2010) Sociolinguistic variation in the speech of learners of Chinese as a second language. Language Learning, 60, 366–408.
Linford, B. G.
(2016) The second-language development of dialect-specific morpho-syntactic variation in Spanish during study abroad. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Linford, B., Long, A., Solon, M. & Geeslin, K.
Measuring lexical frequency: Comparison groups and subject expression in L2 Spanish. In L. Ortega, A.E. Tyler, H.I. Park, M. Uno (Eds.), The usage-based study of language learning and multilingualism (pp. 137–155). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Linford, B., Long, A. Y., Solon, M., Whatley, M., & Geeslin, K.
(2013) Lexical frequency effects on L2 Spanish subject pronoun expression. In J. Amaro, G. Lord, A. de Prada Pérez, & J. Aaron, Selected Proceedings of the of the 16th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 175–189). Sommerville, MA: Cascadillia Preceedings Project.
Long, A. Y.
(2016) The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by Korean learners of Spanish: Development and use of the copula, subject expression, and intervocalic stops. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
Long, M. H.
(2015) Second language acquisition and task-based language teaching. Malden, MA: Wiley & Sons.
(1994) The effect of functional-analytic teaching on aspects of French immersion students’ sociolinguistic competence. Applied Linguistics, 15, 263–287.
(2010) The sociolinguistic competence of immersion students. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Nagy, N., Blondeau, H., & Auger, J.
(2002) Second language acquisition and “real” French: An investigation of subject doubling in the French of Montreal Anglophones. Language Variation and Change, 15, 73–103.
Ortiz Jiménez, M.
(2013) Stigmatized linguistic identities and Spanish language teaching. International Proceedings of Economics Development & Research, 68, 129–135.
(2015) The acquisition of an Egyptian phonological variant by U.S. students in Cairo. Foreign Language Annals, 48, 267–283.
(1983) Bilingüismo y actitudes hacia variedades del español entre estudiantes de Texas y California. Lingüística Española Actual, 5, 249–268.
(2004) The relationship between the group and the individual and the acquisition of native speaker variation patterns: A preliminary study. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 42, 335–348.
(2009) The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a study abroad context. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Rehner, K., Mougeon, R., & Nadasdi, T.
(2003) The learning of sociolinguistic variation by advanced FSL learners. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 127–156.
(2012) Learner acquisition of dialect variation in a study abroad context: The case of the Spanish [θ]. Foreign Language Annals, 45, 430–446.
Salaberry, M. R.
(2000) The acquisition of English past tense in an instructional setting. System, 28, 135–152.
Variación dialectal por aprendientes de español en un contexto de inmersión en el extranjero: Un análisis cuantitativo del uso leísta en el discurso oral y escrito. Lenguas Modernas, 43, 97–112.
Scales, J., Wennerstrom, A., Richard, D. & Wu, S. H.
(2006) Language learners’ perceptions of accent. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 715–738.
Schmidt, L. B.
(2009) The effect of dialect familiarity via a study abroad experience on L2 comprehension of Spanish. In J. Collentine, M. García, & F. Marcos Marín (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 11th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 143–154). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Schmidt, L. B.
(2011) Acquisition of dialectal variation in second language: L2 perception of aspiration of Spanish /s/. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
(1990) The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11, 129–158.
Shirai, Y. & Andersen, R. W.
(1995) The acquisition of tense-aspect morphology: A prototype account. Language, 71, 743–762.
(2017, April). Acquisition of sociophonetic competence: Exploring contexts of acceptance of and preference for /d/ deletion. Paper presented at the Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.