Ronald Wardhaughs An Introduction to Sociolinguistics has been a cornerstone of courses in the field for over two decades, maintaining its popularity by combining clear and accessible coverage of a wide range of issues with useful student study features. This comprehensive sixth edition retains these strengths, but has also been updated throughout to reflect developments in the field. New chapter-by-chapter explorations sections have been added which encourage students to actively engage with tkey issues in sociolinguistics. The sixth edition includes greater focus on ideas of identity, solidarity, and markedness, while the features that have made this work a classic the balanced coverage of issues ranging from language dialects and variation, code-switching, bilingualism, and speech communities, to ethnographies, gender, and disadvantage have been updated to reflect the latest research. Accessible and engaging, this is an ideal introduction for both undergraduates and graduate students with little or no background in sociolinguistics.