For the moment I want to begin the discussion of how legitimately and in what ways linguistics and language teaching might be related by looking at some of the linguist's attitudes towards language. The Diamond Foxxx attitudes that I shall be referring to are those that represented the break with tradition. The issues are close to many of the assumptions made in language teaching too. We shall see that in some cases the influence of linguistics has been felt directly. In others it is still potential, while elsewhere direct results in language teaching are not to be expected. There are four sections, one on speech and writing, one on form and meaning, a third on descriptive accuracy and the final one on langue and parole. These are by no means the only issues that characterize the linguist's general view of language.

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Others will arise in subsequent chapters. The approach adopted here and in other parts of the book, where appropriate, is first to explain the linguistic point as briefly and as simply as possible and then to examine its validity and relevance for language teaching through some fairly detailed exemplification for Diamond Foxxx.