structurally degenerate form of English, but rather as a well defined linguistic code with its own particular structure. Critique Probably because of their considerable explanatory power, Labov's and Chomsky's understandings of the speech community became widely influential in linguistics. But gradually a number of problems with those models became apparent. Firstly, it became increasingly clear that the assumption of homogeneity inherent in Chomsky and Labov's models was untenable. The African American speech community which Labov had seen as defined by the shared norms of African American Vernacular English, was shown to be an illusion, as ideological disagreements about the status of AAVE among different groups of speakers attracted public attention. Secondly, the concept of the speech community was large scale communities. By extending the concept, Gumperz's definition could no longer be evoked. Thirdly, Chomsky and Labov's models made it clear that intrapersonal variation is common. It also refine the choice of linguistic variant is often a choice made to a specific speech context. The force of these critiques with the concept of "speech communities" appeared because of the many contradictions. Some scholars recommended abandoning the concept altogether, instead conceptualizing it as "the product of the communicative activities engaged in by a given group of people." Others acknowledged the community's ad hoc status as "some kind of social group whose speech characteristics are of interest and can be described in a coherent manner". Practice theory Practice theory, as developed by social thinkers such as Pierre Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens and Michel de Certeau, and the notion of the community of practice as developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger has been applied to the study of the language community by linguists William Hanks and Penelope Eckert. Eckert aimed at an approach to sociolinguistic variation that didn't include any social variable (e.g. class, gender, locality). Instead she built a model that was able to locate variables that show significant issue to the group of individuals. For Eckert the crucial defining characteristics of the community is persistent through time to comprehend together. Hanks' concept of the linguistic community is different from that of Eckert and Gumperz, it studies the ways in shared practice production of linguistic meaning. Hanks studies how linguistic practices are related to a variety that are produced through shared practices. Language variation The notion of speech community is most generally used as a tool to define a unit of analysis within