'Language and Life' is an anthology of articles dealing with aspects of the teaching of English as a foreign language, but it is under-pined by the motto of the book: 'To say, as I have been tempted to say, that language is human life, is incorrect, but to say that language is a part of human life is a profound and widely misconceived understatement'.

The book would be of interest to those engaged in the profession of language teaching or to the general reader interested in how English might be taught or what the teaching of the language entails. The author's career in language teaching spans several decades and these articles were written in response to attempts to help students understand the importance of language in general and of any language in particular. The author refers to the Lakota Sioux religious precept 'mitakuye oyasin ' which holds that all things are related to one another. He calls his approach to language teaching 'relationism' and dubs himself a 'relationist'. The elements of a language are related to one another and the language itself is related to real-life issues. He believes that this 'relationist' approach to language presentation has helped to motivate his students. His own more insightful motivation for bringing these articles together concerns his emphasis on the importance of language and language acquisition, and his conviction that a deterioration in the quality and richness of language is an assault on the quality and richness of life. This same theme runs through much of the author's writings (e.g. 'The Mirror Men', 'The Mountain Dwellers', 'The Spare Room', and 'Undeliverable Letters, Unreachable Galaxies').