The aim of this book is to make a case for regarding the discipline of applied linguistics as a social science. Social theory and applied linguistics, then, share some common areas of interest, although the concepts used by each to discuss these have their own emphases and history. Throughout the book, we shall be considering what each discipline can contribute to our understanding of a number of key questions in the social sciences. Both disciplines are in effect, concerned with ways of knowing the social world. In pursuit of this, each deals with a range of objects of knowledge.
