Currently more than 300 million people live in the US, the vast majority of whom have English as their native language. However, there is no standard variety of American English (which the notion “General American” suggests) and the English spoken by US residents is far from being uniform. Therefore, the US - as any other country in the world - are a patchwork of different dialect areas. This seminar aims at studying the most important varieties of American English, including their historical backgrounds, current status and most important features on various language levels. During the first phase of the seminar, we will talk about the history, general principles and methodology of sociolinguistics in general. In the second phase, work will get more practical: students will be exposed to different audio/video samples which will provide them with the opportunity to practice their ability to recognize distinctive features of language and interpret them according to their sociolinguistic context. Requirements: active participation, reading assignments, (short) presentation and final exam.