Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides some fixed points on our map of applied linguistics, describing points of departure, characteristic features of the terrain and ways not to go. It outlines a broad perspective on human language that knits together its social and cognitive strands. The book identifies ten fundamentally misguided ideas in everyday thinking about language, but argues that applied linguists need to acknowledge and respect them, because they are firmly embedded in most people's world views and determine many of their language-related decisions and practices. It encounters plenty of tangible, practical evidence for the limited value of equating thought with language, including from applied linguistics itself. The book seeks to capitalize on the diversity of views and practices and argues that an applied linguistics that fosters unbridgeable polarities and intellectual territoriality compromises the discipline's successful dynamism and hybridity.