This study of language in use provides a good survey of concepts, accomplishments and goals of sociolinguistics. The seven major chapters respectively: introduce the major themes of language/dialect distinction, speech community and communicative competence; deal with bilingualism, language shift and death and code-switching from a sociological orientation; survey traditional urban sociolinguistics; explore the socio-cultural dimension of gender-related interactional differences; continue the idea of language evolution over time; examine all aspects of pidgins and creoles; and explore the correlation between linguistic differences and educational attainment.