Applied Linguistics as Social Science

Applied Linguistics as Social Science surveys the increasing dialogue between linguistics and social theory. The book shows how social theory, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics share a set of common concerns, and how an analysis of these to produce a social scientific account of applied linguistics helps to explain the interaction between social structures, human agents and language. Foreword * Introduction * Making connections: some key issues in social theory and applied linguistics * Sociology and ideas about language * Language as a cultural emergent property * Researching language learning: theories, evidence, claims * Social categories and theoretical descriptions * Social domain theory: interpreting intercultural communication * Language in the world: properties and powers * A social realist approach to research in applied linguistics