Includes index.

Bibliography: p. 523-567.

Introduction; PART ONE: CLEARING THE GROUND; 1. Talking about language teaching; 2. Theory and practice; 3. Towards a conceptual framework; 4. Research; PART TWO: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES; 5. Approaches and studies; 6. A sketch of recent and current trends: 1880-1980; PART THREE: CONCEPTS OF LANGUAGE; 7. Trends in linguistic theory; 8. Linguistic theory and language teaching: emergence of a relationship; 9. Linguistic theory and language teaching: reassessment and current status; PART FOUR: CONCEPTS OF SOCIETY; 10. Society, culture, and language; 11. Aspects of sociolinguistics; 12. The social sciences and the second language curriculum; 13. The sociology of language teaching and learning; PART FIVE: CONCEPTS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING; 14. Psychological approaches to language and learning; 15. Development of a psychological perspective in language teaching: a selective review; 16. Models of second language learning and the concept of proficiency; 17. Learner factors; 18. Conditions of learning and the learning process; PART SIX: CONCEPTS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING; 19. The study of education and its relevance to language teaching; 20. Language teaching theories as theories of teaching method; 21. The break with the method concept; 22. An educational interpretation of language teaching ; Conclusion; Bibliography and citation index; Index

Professor Stern puts applied linguistics research into its historical and interdisciplinary perspective. He gives an authoritative survey of past developments worldwide and establishes a set of guidelines for the future. There are six parts: Clearing the Ground, Historical Perspectives, Concepts of Language, Concepts of Society, Concepts of Language Learning, and Concepts of Language Teaching.