The study of teenagers in the classroom, and how they interact with one another and their teachers, can tell us a great deal about late-modern society. In this revealing account, Ben Rampton presents the extensive sociolinguistic research he carried out in an inner-city high school. Through his vivid analysis of classroom talk, he offers answers to some important questions: does social class still count for young people, or is it in demise? Are traditional authority relationships in schools being undermined? How is this affected by popular media culture? His study, which provides numerous transcripts and three extensive case studies, introduces a way of perceiving established ideas in sociolinguistics, such as identity, insecurity, the orderliness of classroom talk, and the experience of learning at school. In doing so, Rampton shows how work in sociolinguistics can contribute to some major debates in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies and education.

Winner of the BAAL Book Prize

Review of the hardback:'It is difficult to do justice to this book in one review. It is complex, lucidly written … a major contribution to the field and deserves to be cited as a key text by researchers in cultural studies, sociology, linguistics and education for many years to come.'

Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education

Review of the hardback:'…a beautifully realised work of mature scholarship and highly readable … One could hand the book to a student and say, without much exaggeration, 'Read this, and then follow up the sources, and you will be a fully formed sociolinguist' … It is a spectacular book.'

Source: The Journal of Sociolinguistics

Review of the hardback:'… leads to extremely important insights into leaky boundaries between schools and the wider socio-cultural world, capable of challenging many established assumptions about language in education …'

Source: Language Learning Journal

Review of the hardback:'Rampton pays critical homage to both Dell Hymes and John Gumperz … Combining interactional analysis with capacious theoretical argument, Language in Late Modernity exemplifies the best of their tradition of ethnography sociolinguistics …'

Source: Journal of Anthropological Research

Review of the hardback:'In light of the fact that Rampton is fully successful in maintaining this delicate balancing act between the Scylla of constructivism and the Charybdis of essentialism, this is a book that should be required reading for all sociolinguists of whatever ilk.'

Source: Belgian Journal of English Language and Literature