ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book talks about 'people', and language users. It explains world-encompassing, heterogeneous, multilingual, and multi-thematic, documenting a range of languages, phenomena, ideologies, and disciplines. Claire Kramsch presents her personal life story from a sociolinguistic perspective. The Elder illustrates, through the teaching of Chinese in Australia, a more personal approach to descriptors that take into consideration the language acquisition background of the learners and their personal circumstances. The book provides a unique contribution in that it provides room for listening to the students' voices and analyzing the test formats and contents from their own perspective, very much in line with Elana's agenda over the years. It describes the Jim Lantolf, offers an overview of language, its use, its assessment, and mainly of people within languages.
