This year’s workshop will explore how sociolinguistic variation can be used as a tool to diversify the L2 curriculum. Participants will gain a nuanced understanding of the complex geographic, generational, and social realities that shape language usage, and why awareness of these realities is a key component of communicative and pragmatic competence for L2 learners. Likewise, participants will explore how integrating sociolinguistic variation into their teaching can create spaces for students to see themselves reflected in the L2 curriculum. The workshop features a prominent hands-on component in which participants will work collaboratively to create teaching materials and class activities that develop students’ sociolinguistic awareness of the target language and of themselves.
