We know we are taking chances when giving this issue into your hands. Language and Linguistics?! When discussing one of the submissions with the author, we were trying to argue that it was not for novELTy. “Our readership is not interested in linguistics,” we said. To which the writer replied, “What? Not interested? They are all language teachers, aren’t they? How can they not be interested in what they teach?” A very straightforward argument, very true words. It seems that in recent years we have become so absorbed in focusing on the language learner, analysing the group and the classroom and raising awareness of the social and cultural environment, etc., that we have quite forgotten about the language, that is, the content and the medium of instruction itself. 

In this issue, we are trying to counterbalance that and are offering you a good selection of articles on various aspects of English. To begin with, you can read about very interesting research conducted by Némethné Hock Ildikó at Veszprém. She investigated the language use of English teachers in the classroom. Her article forms part of a longer study and describes the utterances of half a dozen teachers during the lesson, the functions of these utterances and the context in which they occurred. Her conclusions can and hopefully will be used as a basis for designing a proficiency test for future teachers of English.

This issue’s international contributor, Koenraad Kuiper from New Zealand takes us into an other area of language use, namely the enticing world of formulaic speech. Language chunks, unanalysed utterances used for a particular speech purpose in a particular socio-pragmatic context play an important role in the acquisition of a second language. Kuiper argues that the teaching of formulae is particularly difficult for non-native speaker teachers. 

In an interview with Peter Trudgill, we get some insight into the world of sociolinguistics. His stories, anecdotes and personal reflections are both entertaining and illuminating. They might make many young readers follow in his footsteps and begin to deal with ‘correct’ language, dialects, or sexism and racism in language. 

Our student researcher, Klatsmányi Eszter summarises the results of her Master’s thesis on discourse analysis. More specifically, she presents a comparative study of expert and student translations of the same text. Her findings are useful for all who either do or teach translations. 

The teaching tips are also on language in a way. When John Drew relates his experiences in making students write poetry, it is not literature that is in the focus, but language, the most creative use of the foreign language one can think of. When Igor Lakic, our regional author from Montenegro summarises the techniques of using music in language teaching, the focus is obviously not on the tunes but the words, and the recommended techniques range from the teaching of vocabulary to grammar practice and the use of the four skills.

The Events  section reports on two cultural events and informs about two important conferences of the spring: AAAL and IATEFL. The Book Review  continues the introduction of the Oxford Linguistics Series, then a book on English Grammar with a completely new approach is described. Some good sourcebooks to those who are more practice oriented are also recommended.

We close the volume with the usual information section. Please check out what is happening in IATEFL both nationally and internationally, and read about the upcoming events and exams organised by the British Council.

So do not say ‘Language and Linguistics’ is not for you because you ‘only’ teach elementary learners in a primary school. Give these articles a chance, and we are sure that in each of them you will find some important implications to teaching that will enrich both your thinking and your practice. 

We hope this has been an as fruitful schoolyear for you as it has been for us. Happy holidays and see you in October at the 10th IATEFL-H Conference in Pécs. 

Edit H. Kontra and Kormos Judit Editors