ABSTRACT
This chapter profiles some of the key groups of language users whose needs might be, directly or indirectly, addressed by applied linguists. It considers some general issues about our key populations, before characterizing the groups in the body of the chapter. The chapter looks at the quintessentially linguistic, but very culturally sensitive, issue of naming practices for the groups of language users. It provides some observations regarding the overlapping nature of our key populations and the factors that characterize them. The chapter reviews at a succession of groups of language users, organizing them according to their relationship to language, on four general dimensions. It also considers their relationships with languages themselves, as users and learners and focuses on questions of normal and impaired access to language, through writing, speech, sign and Braille. The chapter addresses the involvement of language as an object or objective in professional practice, from theatre direction to lexicography.
