《應用語言學》在“前言”之後，由“概述”、“閱讀材料”、“參考書目”和“術語表”四個部分構成。第一部分概述是全書的主體，也是有關該領域研究的導論。第二部分提供與書中各章節內容相應的深入閱讀的材料，其後所附的問題極具啟發性，有助於讀者形成對有關領域研究的獨立見解。第三部分提供相應章節的參考書目，並對它們的主要內容作了點評，以便有興趣的學習者深入學習。第四部分列出術語表，幫助初學者了解有關術語的定義。

《應用語言學》為“牛津語言學入門叢書”之一，叢書作者均為國際知名的語言學專家。語言學家認為在文學作品中或在日常生活中，人們用語篇表達含義。《應用語言學》介紹了有關語篇分析的關鍵概念，如語域、語篇類型、語料庫等。

Preface
SECTION I
Survey
1 Applied linguistics
The need for applied linguistics
Examples and procedures
The scope of applied linguistics
Linguistics and applied linguistics: a difficult relationship

2 Prescribing and describing: popular and academic views of 'correctness'
Children's language at home and school
Description versus prescription
An applied linguistics perspective

3 Languages in the contemporary world
Language and languages
Attitudes to languages
The languages of nations: boundaries and relationships
The growth of English
English and Englishes
Native speakers
English as a Lingua Franca （ELF）

4 English Language Teaching （ELT）
Grammar-translation language teaching
The direct method
'Natural' language learning
The communicative approach

5 Language and communication
Knowing a language
Linguistic competence
Communicative competence
The influence of communicative competence

6 Context and culture
Systematizing context: discourse analysis Culture
Translation, culture, and context
Own language: rights and understanding
Teaching culture

7 Persuasion and poetics; rhetoric and resistance
Literary stylistics
Language and persuasion
Critical Discourse Analysis （CDA）

8 Past, present, and future directions
Early orientation
Subsequent changes
Second-Language Acquisition （SLA）
Corpus linguistics
Being applied
Critical Applied Linguistics （CALx）
'Post-modern' applied linguistics
A harder future: mediation
SECTION 2
Readings
SECTION 3
References
SECTION 4
Glossary