This book is intended to serve as a broad orientation to the discipline of language study rather than as an introduction to be employed in technical linguistics classes. The 13 chapters touch upon aspects of theoretical as well as applied linguistics, including psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and language instruction. Each chapter is followed by study questions and activities, and by a bibliography. The chapter headings are: (1) Facts and Fantasies about Language; (2) The Beginnings of Language; (3) Languages and More Languages: A Tour; (4) Winds of Change: The New Linguistics; (5) Phonology: A Sign of Structure; (6) Morphology and Syntax: More Signs; (7) Semantics: The Study of Meaning; (8) Writing Systems of the World; (9) Other Systems of Communication; (10) One Language for the World? (11) Implications and Applications: Social, Political, and Educational Consequences; (12) Second Language Learning and Teaching: Gaps in a Crucial Area; and (13) The X,Y,Z,'s of Language Learning: Bilingual and Second Language Education. An appendix lists the languages of the world in alphabetical order, along with information on place spoken, family, and speaking population. (AM)