Written in a friendly style, drawing on a wide range of anecdotes from the author's own experience, this book provides an ideal starting point for those approaching language study. Nunan's enthusiasm and the immediacy of his examples offer students a thought-provoking way into the basics of study such as syntax, morphology and phonology. Raising awareness about the different ways language is used, this book provides a solid linguistic framework and lots of suggestions for where to find out more.