ABSTRACT
In the late 1990s the Open University began training teachers of English as a second or other language. As a result, I became involved with research in language classrooms, and first engaged with applied linguistics and studies of bilingual development. Through working with researchers and teachers in those fields, I realised that they were often dealing with aspects of classroom education that were not specific to the language classroom, and that a sociocultural perspective on teaching and learning was as relevant there as with any other curriculum subject. This chapter was written for a new postgraduate, international, distance education course for teachers created jointly with Macquarie University, in which I was fortunate enough to work closely with Chris Candlin, a leading figure in applied linguistics.
