This is an introduction to linguistics, the study of human language. The author provides a succinct but lucid outline of the ways in which language has been defined, described, and explored, and guides readers towards further exploration of their own.

This book takes a particular perspective on the nature of poetry and follows this through to proposals for teaching. It focuses attention on how the use of language in short poems can set up conditions for individual interpretation and the representation of reality in ways other than those which are established by normal social convention. This view of poetry, it is argued, leads to a recognition of its essential role in education, and provides a set of principles for an approach to teaching it which integrates the study of language and literature.

Professor Widdowson provides a critical review of the most prominent issues in language teaching today — among them the relevance of theoretical enquiry to practical pedagogy, and the relationship between grammar and discourse in communicative language teaching. He relates these issues to general perspectives on the nature of language and language learning.

This book develops a rational approach to the teaching of language as communication, based on a careful consideration of the nature of language and of the language user's activities. It will stimulate all language teachers to investigate the ideas that inform their own practice.