This volume represents an outgrowth of the VIIth international ATECR conference, which brought together researchers and educators from fields as diverse as language teaching in a variety of contexts, corpus linguistics or literary studies. The contributions in this volume show - despite their diversity - a strong common denominator: to bundle efforts and unify parameters in order to optimize English Language Teaching as a world-wide endeavor. Thus, for our teaching it can only be beneficial when linguists talk to literary- minded teachers or methodology specialists investigate whether their theoretical underpinnings make their way into practice by talking to language instructors or language service providers. In general, the authors present a multifaceted picture of the English Language teaching context with themselves as practitioners but also as investigators and researchers at the same time. The research that reflects back on their teaching thus creates a force-feedback loop not only for the investigating scholar but also for the practicing instructor who reapplies his/her knowledge after failed or suboptimal attempts as evidenced by the data.