- Davies, A. & Elder, C. (eds.) 2006. The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

The Handbook of Applied Linguistics is a collection of  articles that provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the field of Applied Linguistics. It presents applied linguistics as an independent discipline that unifies practical  experience and theoretical understanding of language development and language in use.

- Kaplan, R. B. 2010. The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics (2^nd ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The goal of this book is to provide a comprehensive survey of the current state of the field, the many connections among its various sub-disciplines, and the likely directions of its future development. The volume addresses the diversity of questions facing applied linguists today: What is the place of applied linguistics in the architecture of the university? Where does applied linguistics fit into the sociology of knowledge? What are the questions that applied linguistics ought to be addressing? What are the dominant paradigms guiding research in the field? What kinds of problems can be solved through the mediation of applied linguistics? What aspects of linguistics can be empirically applied to language-based problems, and what spaces resist such application? What will new students of applied linguistics need to know in the coming years?