An overview of the key areas within the study of language variation and language change.

Introduction Robert Bayley and Ceil Lucas; Part I. Theories: 1. Variation and phonological theory Gregory R. Guy; 2. Variation and syntactic theory Lisa Green; 3. The psycholinguistic unity of inherent variability: old Occam whips out his razor Ralph W. Fasold and Dennis R. Preston; 4. The study of variation in historical perspective Kirk Hazen; 5. Style in dialogue: Bakhtin and sociolinguistic theory Allan Bell; 6. Variation and historical linguistics Michael Montgomery; 7. Second language acquisition: a variationist perspective Robert Bayley; 8. Variation and modality Ceil Lucas; Part II. Methods: 9. Fieldwork Natalie Schilling-Estes; 10. Quantitative analysis Sali A. Tagliamonte; 11. Sociophonetics Erik R. Thomas; Part III. Applications: 12. Sociolinguistic variation and education Carolyn Temple Adger and Donna Christian; 13. Lessons learned from the Ebonics controversy: implications for language assessment Anna F. Vaughn-Cooke; 14. Variation and versatility in the classroom: contrastive analysis revisited Angela E. Rickford and John R. Rickford; 15. Social-political influences on research practices: examining language acquisition by African American children Ida J. Stockman; 16. Sociolinguistic variation and the law Ronald R. Butters; 17. Attitudes towards variation and ear-witness testimony John Baugh; Afterword Roger W. Shuy.