This book was published in response to the need to provide a comprehensive book dealing with the multidimensional complexity of language and literacy education. This book is carefully designed to capture three major interrelated aspects of language and literacy education in a changing and challenging world: to introduces some fundamental theoretical concepts and issues about the nature and functions of language, particularly with insights gained from linguistics and applied linguistics; to focus on language and literacy education in context; and to deal with social and cultural aspects of language and literacy in an intercultural context. This book provides a comprehensive and integrated range of theoretical and practical insights beyond the limited traditional focus on language and literacy pedagogy.

The title of this book 'Critical Discourse Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Perspective' is purposely chosen to emphasise the interdisciplinary nature of critical discourse analysis (CDA). This book has the following key features: The chapter authors bring to the book their diversified backgrounds. They are linguists, educators, computer scientists, health professionals, and social consultants. Although they all share a common interest in CDA, their academic and cultural experiences are different and this intercultural and interdisciplinary feature provides interesting insights into the understanding of CDA and its wider application. Thus, it appeals to a wide range of readers such as students, educators, researchers, health professionals and others. The book is divided into three parts to reflect the main interdisciplinary aspects of CDA: Part One is about some introductory aspects of CDA. It gives readers some basic ideas about CDA as an emerging field. Part Two is on CDA across different subjects and disciplines such as language education, information technology, and heath sciences. Part Three deals with CDA across cultures. It includes the use of CDA in examining social and linguistic issues in different nations and cultures such as Spain, Nigeria, Indonesia, New Zealand. For those who do not have backgrounds in linguistics, two introductory chapters on aspects of linguistics and functional grammar, which are relevant to CDA, are included in this book. They are essential for understanding CDA.