Language variation and ethnic identity: A social psychological perspective

•Discusses this issue’s contributions from a social psychological perspective.•It presents three psychological perspectives on ethnic identity.•These theoretical frameworks raise different questions about language variation.•Discusses the benefits of complementing quantitative self-reports with other methods.•Sociolinguistics and social psychology must better articulate the “social context”.

In the interest of promoting discussion between sociolinguists and social psychologists, this paper offers a social psychological perspective on some of the themes surrounding ethnicity and language that are raised by the authors of the papers in this issue. I present three psychological approaches to ethnic identity and suggest how each of these theoretical models might lead to different research questions regarding the relation between language and ethnicity. I also suggest some caveats regarding the use of self-reports of ethnic identity, particularly quantitative responses to closed-ended questions, that research on language and ethnicity suggests we should be attentive to. I conclude with some discussion of how social psychological and sociolinguistic researchers might jointly advance understanding of the link between ethnicity and language, particularly through a more fully articulated analysis of the “social context”.