Applied Linguistics investigates real-world problems involving language. As such it has the difficult task of mediating between academic expertise and lived experience, attempting to reconcile opposed interests and perspectives. This clearly written introduction provides a concise but comprehensive overview of the most pressing and controversial issues surrounding contemporary language use today, including intercultural communication, political persuasion, new technologies, the growth of English, language in education, and foreign language teaching and learning.

Guy Cook is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading. He has worked as an EFL teacher in Egypt, Italy, the UK, and Russia, as a lecturer at the University of Leeds, and as head of TESOL at the London University Institute of Education. He has been an invited speaker at universities and major conferences in many countries, and has published widely on discourse analysis, the theory and practice of language teaching, literature teaching, translation, and language play.