Adapting sociolinguistic fieldwork techniques for use in teaching a second language is presented as an activity that gets students out of the classroom and into the speech community to observe and use language in real situations. It is intended for intermediate and advanced students who need motivation and encouragement to interact with native speakers. First methodological approaches of sociolinguists studying speech in a social context are examined, beginning with the identification of the speech community to be studied. Also included in the fieldwork techniques are preparing an explanation for the interviews and devising interview forms to guide the conversations, which are tape-recorded. Next, student preparation is discussed, including pre-fieldwork activities (classroom role-playing), and fieldwork preparation (classroom discussion to prepare topic and schedule). Three sample taped interviews are shown concerning life in New York, Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia, and family life in the United States. The material collected from the fieldwork lends itself to a wide variety of follow-up linguistic activities. The order of the fieldwork analysis is outlined, beginning with a general class discussion followed by examples from particular interviews, student presentations of findings, and ending with a student evaluation of the entire process. This exercise is advocated because it forces students to use what they know in order to learn more. The appendices include suggested interviews for use in three second language situations: bilingual, Americans studying a foreign language in the United States, and adults in ESL class. (NCR)