This book provides an accessible and readable overview of linguistic research.The text uses pedagogical tools such as analogies, metaphors, and graphic organizersto clarify the meaning of complex linguistic concepts. To ensure that readersdevelop a firm and lasting grasp of new ideas, the book illustratestheoretical concepts with language samples (such as popular song lyrics orfamous sayings) that are likely to be familiar to the reader. The use of such recognizablelanguage material is intended to help students see the language intheir own environment as worth observing and analyzing.Above all, the book is meant to help future teachers in the classroom. This goallargely determines the book's scope. The text provides an overview of those studiesthat have especially significant implications for classroom practice. Forinstance, the chapter on neurolinguistics covers research into the gestures that accompany speech, and the chapteron semantics places special emphasis on discussing the role of conceptual metaphors in cognition. Each ofthe book's eleven chapters concludes with a section entitled "Implications for Instruction." These sectionsengage to reader in exploring the practical significance of linguistic research.