Applied linguistics encompasses a wide range of studies, and this essay only provides a brief idea of all the ongoing research. Many areas have not been mentioned, such as work on communication with blind and deaf people, on interaction with the disabled, on bilingualism, and on the whole field of language planning. The aim has been to give an overview of broader developments within AL, stressing the dynamic and expansive character of AL research. The study is thus limited to a few settings, within which important AL work has been carried out: the educational, the economic-technical, the legal and bureaucratic, the medical-social, the workplace, and the science and academic setting.