This fifth volume of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) returns essentially to the broad review of Applied Linguistics with which the series opened in 1980. It is the conception of the Editorial Directors that the broad field of Applied Linguistics changes rapidly enough to justify a more general survey every four or five years. It has become the practice of the Editorial Directors to publish more targeted volumes in the intervening years; thus, while the first volume of ARAL attempted a broad coverage (i.e., Bilingualism, Pidginization and Creolization, Structural-Cognitive Pedagogical Approaches, Notional/Functional Approaches, Computer-Assisted Instruction, Psycholinguistlcs, Error Analysis, Language Testing, Sign Language, and Sociolinguistics), volumes II, III, and IV were more narrowly focused-i.e., respectively on Language and Language-in- Education Policy, Written Discourse, and Literacy. This volume attempts again a broad coverage of the whole field.