AN INTRODUCTION TO APPLIED LINGUISTICS. Norbert Schmitt (Ed.). London: Arnold, 2002. Pp. viii + 344. $72.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

Applied linguistics is currently undergoing interesting developments connected with new research areas and tools. At the same time, there exist numerous introductory textbooks to various subbranches and general overviews of the discipline. The present volume is yet another addition to the field, covering both traditional areas and approaches as well as more recent tendencies. In his preface, Schmitt describes the book as a “broad overview of applied linguistics” written at “the ‘sophisticated introduction’ level” (p. vii). The book is indeed broad in scope and sophisticatedly simple. It opens with a concise overview of applied linguistics, followed by three major parts devoted to the description of language and language use, major areas of inquiry, and language skills and assessment, respectively. Part 1 covers grammar, vocabulary, discourse analysis, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics. Part 2 investigates SLA, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and the language learner. Finally, Part 3 covers listening, speaking and pronunciation, reading, writing, and assessment. The book concludes with suggested solutions to the activities, references for individual chapters, and an index. The chapters, authored by 31 leading experts, are all organized in similar fashion, with introductory discussion and appropriate definitions, further analyses, notes on possible implementations and implications for language teaching and research, numerous quotations from source literature, annotated further readings, and stimulating hands-on activities.