The article deals with the potential of the sociolinguistic approach in linguistic expertise. It presents the method of identification of the communicative leadership in negotiations of a group of communicants.

There are analyzed the issues of sociocultural adaptation of migrants of the Murmansk region. There are sorted out its such significant sociocultural criteria as gender characteristics, age, presence/absence of children, level of education, degree of language knowledge, professional training, job, readiness for retraining and change of work.