A yearly cross-section of current work in Edinburgh University's Department of Applied Linguistics is offered with the aim of eliciting reactions and criticism. Papers in this compilation are: "Discursive Aspects of Metafiction: A Neo-Oral Aura?"; "The Reaction of Learners to Tape-Based Listening Comprehension Materials in French, Spanish and Italian 'Community Classes'"; "Interlanguage Lexis: An Investigation of Verb Choice"; "An Investigation of a Timetabled Self-Access Session in a General English Programme"; "Is It Or Is It Not Interlanguage? A Head-On Confrontation with Non-Native English"; "Conditionals and the Expression of Regret and Relief: Towards a Fragment for a Communicative Grammar"; "Arguments For and Against Free Variation"; "Bibliographic Presentation";"Crosslinguistic Influence in a Bilingual Classroom: the Example of Maltese and English"; "Assessing the Readability of Medical Journal Articles: An Analysis of Teacher Judgments"; and "Literary Discourse and Irony: Secret Communion and the Pact of Reciprocity." (JL)