The Editors: Karlfried Knapp is professor of Applied and English Linguistics at the University of Erfurt. His main areas of research are the sociolinguistics of English, interpreting, intercultural communication and second language acquisition. Christiane Meierkord teaches English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Erfurt. She received a Ph.D. from Düsseldorf University for her thesis on non-native/non-native speaker interaction in English.