Towards cultural diversification in sociolinguistics

This paper takes as its point of departure the fact that the loci of many sociolinguistic theories originate from Western, industrial, and ideologically monolingual (and often Anglophone) societies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and many of the European nation states. This fact leads to a theoretical bias. After an explanation of the problem, this paper proposes ways to decolonise biases in sociolinguistics in practical terms. In general, it is suggested that researchers reach out and collaborate in all kinds of ways. Specific solutions suggested include, amongst others, redetermining what ‘good’ academic English and research constitute, using translation as a tool, proactively soliciting manuscripts, stimulating writing and research cooperation between authors with various backgrounds, making introductions to sociolinguistics broader in their cultural/linguistic focus, providing writing help, and diversifying editorial boards of journals.