The field of applied linguistics hasdeveloped out of traditional linguistics research with a unifying focus on the relationshipbetween theory and practice. This introductory chapter discusses how the fieldof applied linguistics has broadened to encompass multidisciplinary researchwhile investigating practical language issues with the goal of addressing“real-world” problems. Researchers in the field now investigate diverse,contemporary topics such as language education, corpus linguistics, secondlanguage acquisition, English as a lingua franca, and the intersection oflanguage with culture, gender, media, and other social variables and constructs.This introductory chapter highlights recent contributions to the field by localresearchers, and also presents how the sections in this volume furthercontribute to the body of applied linguistics knowledge, providing insightsfrom the multilingual, multicultural context of Indonesia. The authors in thesesections focus on research areas including the relationship between linguisticsand education, corpus linguistics, language use in society and media, andclinical linguistics. This volume provides an opportunity to raise theawareness of non-Western perspectives and research in applied linguistics,enriches understanding in the field, and offers insight into the diverse socialand linguistic contexts of Indonesia.