ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the status of speech in society at different points in time and in linguistic theory and practice in particular. A significant issue which I will be addressing throughout this book is the fact that the spoken form gained primacy of status in language studies in the twentieth century to the point where there was, and there remains, a merging in applied linguistic and wider research circles of the concept of ‘speaking’ with ‘language’. This convergence has had an impact on how the form is assessed, taught, and researched, as later chapters will show.
