A discussion of the field of applied linguistics defines the scope of the discipline, outlines some of the regular publications and activities within it, and looks at four examples of its role in the field of education: language planning, refugee and immigrant issues, dialect issues, and varieties of English. It is emphasized that in these and other areas, applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary endeavor, combining the information and expertise gained from linguistics and from a variety of other fields, as appropriate. (MSE)