More and more academics and professionals now recognise the contribution that conversation analysis can make to their work. However, up to now there has been little attempt to explore the important relationship between this exciting and rapidly growing field and applied linguistics. The contributions to this collection, all written from the analytic perspective of CA, bring together experts from a range of professional fields in order to demonstrate how CA can make a significant contribution to professional practice. As well as appealing to researchers and students in applied linguistics and the social sciences, the book's practical orientation will also make it valuable to specialists in a range of fields, including speech therapy, health communication, retailing, journalism and language teaching. The combination of academic and analytic rigour with strong practical relevance makes the collection essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in professional talk.