This introductory essay to the Discourse & Society special issue on Queer Linguistic Approaches to Discourse discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the connection between discourse studies and Queer Theory within Queer Linguistics -a strand of research that has recently gained great momentum. It outlines basic issues in Queer Theory and their repercussions in Queer Linguistic debates and research. The Queer Linguistic objective to provide critical heteronormativity research is then related to Queer Discourse Studies in its various forms and approaches. An overview of the contributions to the special issue and suggestions for future research conclude the article.

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As applied linguistics is mainly concerned with solving the language-related problems of laypeople, the examination of folk views constitutes an important research field and its relevance is illustrated in this issue of the AILA review. In this introductory article, we address some of the more general aspects that need to be considered in the scientific investigation of folk views of language and communication. Among those aspects are the nature and significance of folk knowledge and folk attitudes for applied linguistics, the social construction of the roles of expert, scientist and layperson, and the connection between folk linguistic research and other related approaches. As a general introduction into the topic, this contribution prepares the ground for the other articles collected in this issue.

La linguistique appliquée n’est pas – ou du moins pas exclusivement – la pure application de théories linguistiques. Il s’agit plutôt de plusieurs domaines de recherches relativement hétérogènes qui ont souvent développé des théories propres et «orientées vers l’application » , censées contribuer à la résolution de problèmes de langue(s) et de communication. La question de savoir s’il s’agit d’une seule (méta-) discipline ou d’un groupement de (sous-) disciplines indépendantes ne trouvera jamais de réponse définitive ou objective. Le linguiste appliqué lui-même sera plutôt intéressé par l’analyse des discours traitant de sa propre «discipline » qu’à la «vérité » de son statut disciplinaire, puisque celle-ci ne sera toujours qu’une vérité construite et partielle.

We are pleased to present a special conference issue of Language Awareness. This special issue contains papers from the 13th Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA) held in July 2016 in Vienna. The 2016 conference attracted over 200 participants from around the world. The conference was organized by the Department of Foreign Language Business Communication of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). This setting served to orientate the conference in a specific thematic direction, i.e. to highlight that Language Awareness (LA) as a research field is not only relevant for traditional language learning and teaching institutions, embedded in humanities, but also for any communicative activity in private and especially professional settings. Language(s) and (intercultural) communication play a significant role in business school curricula, but in such settings one has to deal with the language awareness of (foreign) language learners and users whose primary focus is not languages or linguistics. This presents interesting challenges, both theoretical and applied.This reasoning led us to give the motto 'Language for Life: Educational, Professional and Social Contexts' to the ALA 2016 conference. We knew that most language awareness researchers are working in the field of language learning and teaching, so the educational aspect has to be a central issue for every language awareness conference. However, the additional mention of 'Professional and Social Contexts' was to invite researchers to propose papers dealing with a wider spectrum of issues in order to show the relevance of language awareness in as many contexts as possible. This intention was only partially realized as the core educational aspects of LA still dominated. This same constellation is also reflected in the selection of the papers for the present issue. Nevertheless, an impressive range of themes was addressed at the conference, and the present Special Issue also illustrates this diversity of language awareness research.An important topic of LA research is the meta-issue of its own disciplinary status and its relationship with other, related subfields of applied linguistics. Scholars in general linguistics may often have problems in understanding what the specific characteristics of language awareness research are, and even LA specialists may not be able to explain exactly whether LA is a particular field of linguistic research, an independent sub-discipline, an interdisciplinary approach, etc. As a contribution to this disciplinary, epistemological discussion and in view of particularly evident overlap between Folk Linguistics (FL) and LA research interests, we organised a round table discussion on the mutual relationship between these two research fields, but also between LA and Applied Linguistics in general. 1 You will find a resume of this discussion in this issue, too.This special issue is the culmination of a lot of hard work and cooperation on the part of the contributions' authors, reviewers and editorial staff. B...