Language regulation, as Hynninen explains it in this volume, ‘is a concept that is intended to depict the kind of language use that may lead to formation of (new) norms’ (p. 20). This concept draws attention to the usage of language in micro-level communication and its impact on norms development. Hynninen’s study explores the phenomenon of language regulation in spoken academic settings using English as a Lingua Franca (henceforth ELF), looking at it from both interactional and ideological perspectives. An important distinction in this context was made by Bartsch (1987), who distinguishes between grammatically-conforming language use and acceptable language use. The former is measured against established linguistic norms, whereas the latter is driven by the interactive norm to accomplish mutual understanding. This means that interaction becomes a site for negotiating norms, in the sense that if deviation from what is grammatically correct occurs repeatedly over time and is accepted in talk, new norms may be formed. In this book Hynninen constructs language norms as acceptable linguistic conduct, focusing particularly on the negotiation of acceptable language in interaction. Nevertheless, she does not restrict the exploration of language norms only to interactional behaviours of regulatory negotiations, as research indicates that the conformity to a norm is influenced by expectations of language use. In addition, we also know that speakers’ beliefs about what is correct usage of language is not necessarily reflected in their actual linguistic behaviour. This calls for a binary approach in exploring language norms. In this light, Hynninen conceptualises language norms as a combination of communicative linguistic behaviours (the interactive dimension of the study) and speakers’ beliefs about and expectations of others’ behaviours (the ideological element studied in this research).