Michael Byram and Peter Grundy have both worked in language teaching for many years at the University of Durham. Their interests in foreign language teaching in Britain and Europe, and in the teaching of English worldwide, complement each other and bridge the gap which often exists between ELT and other languages. They have cooperated to bring together researchers from several European countries and the USA in an endeavour to raise the awareness of the profession concerning the socio-political, cultural and psychological contexts in which language teaching and learning takes place; classrooms are not insulated from the world.