ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dual nature of human language, as both an individual, cognitive system rooted in human biology and a shared resource embedded in, and articulating, sociocultural beliefs and practices. After a brief tour of the biological landscape of human language, it describes some of the major types of language disability and other disorders that can affect language use. This essential background knowledge may allow people to proceed to an account of the clinical and community-based practice of language pathologists at both the assessment and treatment stages. The therapist can be part of a team of professionals, each with a different area of expertise, and they must cast the diagnostic net more broadly than the physician, employing an ample battery of assessment tools drawn from medicine, linguistics, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and social psychology. The chapter explores a brief roll call of other roles for applied linguists.
