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.