The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader

The Routledge Applied Linguistics Reader is an essential collection of readings for students of Applied Linguistics. Divided into five sections: Language Teaching and Learning, Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, Identity and Power and Language Use in Professional Contexts, the Reader takes a broad interpretation of the subject from its traditional foundations in language teaching and learning to cover the newer subdisciplines from corpus linguistics to forensic linguistics.

Using a multidisciplinary approach, the Reader focuses on the topics and issues to which Applied Linguistics research has made a significant contribution, in particular:

• our understanding of key concepts and notions in the study of real-world problems in which language and communication play a central role
• the theoretical debates of broader social science issues that impact on language teaching, learning and use
• the main methodological advances.

Featuring twenty-seven carefully selected readings, the Reader focuses on both the major contributions of Applied Linguistics, and the conceptual and theoretical issues of the subject in a variety of contexts and methods. The selection comprises seminal articles from leading researchers, as well as fresh perspectives from new voices in the subject. These readings are amplified by a general introduction as well as detailed, critical summaries of each section, discussion questions and recommended further reading for each article.

Li Wei is Professor of Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, and the Director of Birkbeck Graduate Research School. He is editor of The Bilingualism Reader, second edition (Routledge, 2007) and Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Critical Concepts in Linguistics, four volumes (Routledge, 2009).