Discussions of the place of standard English among other linguistic idioms in British sociolinguistics

The article highlights the discussions of the concept of ‘standard language’ and its place within the system of national language in British sociolinguistics. The author shows the points of contact between the theory of linguistic variation worked out by sociolinguistics and the principles of English language teaching in Great Britain in the 20th – the beginning of the 21st centuries. The focus is on the so-called ‘doctrine of appropriateness’, according to which both Standard English and substandard varieties of English are considered appropriate according to the situation.