This book lays out some of the major underpinnings of contemporary thought on two concepts considered to be at the heart of applied linguistics activity, language and culture.It gives a perspective on the nature of language and culture looking at how the use of language in real-world situations helps us understand how language is used to construct our social and cultural worlds. The conceptual maps on the nature of language, culture and learning provided in this text help orient readers to some current theoretical and practical activities taking place in applied linguistics. They also help them begin to chart their own explorations in the teaching and researching of language and culture.