A meta-analysis of recent research on the social psychology of language

The social psychology of language is a complex, multi-layered and obviously multi-disciplinary field of enquiry. This paper outlines the territory of this sub-discipline of applied linguistics, and gives an overview of the current theories, constructs, models and tools current in the field. It also provides a broad picture of recent approaches to empirical research in the field. This range of theoretical perspectives, research methods and interdisciplinary applications was found during a meta-analysis of 169 abstracts that were published between 2001 and 2003. Analysis of these abstracts suggested an increasing range of socio-psychological constructs incorporated into studies of applied linguistics, especially in relation to second language acquisition and use. There also appeared to be a growing trend among social psychologists to involve linguistics more systematically in their research