Linguists teach about how language works. Currently, linguists have a long way to go before convince even a majority of the population of the modern, scientific view of how language works.

One of the most treacherous hurdles for linguists is teaching about language variation. Most people believe that synchronic and diachronic variation are bad and should be eliminated, but the truth about the human brain is that language variation is a natural and important part of how language works.

A key point teaching about language variation is the separation of social stigma from linguistic evaluation. Several of the exercises below illustrate this point.

The links to the right lead to pdf files of lessons from Dialect Awareness Programs. Dialect Awareness Programs were first created by Walt Wolfram. Some of the programs below come from his work; some are from Kirk Hazen.