Varbrul analysis in applied linguistics

VARBRUL analysis is a well known technique used in sociolinguistics for the analysis of variable linguistic phenomena and it is suggested that it would also be useful as a tool in Applied Linguistics. A VARBRUL analysis was undertaken of the placement of students of non-English speaking background (NESB) in high, average and low English and mathematics streams in N.S.W. high schools. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not NESB students were over-represented in the low stream. The factor groups analyzed were ethnic background, school subject and country of birth.