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The discipline of Applied Linguistics (AL) is, in a sense, a container for a range of sub-fields, that themselves originated from a range of different professions. These range from Cognitive sciences, through Forensics to Sociology. However AL tends for the most part to be most closely associated with the disciplines of Second Language Acquisition and English Language Teaching.
According to Zoltán Dörnyei (CUP 2009, 3), "It is a somewhat eclectic field that accommodates diverse theoretical approaches, and its interdisciplinary scope includes linguistic, psychological and educational topics. It focuses on, "How language is acquired and used in the modern world."
The following sub-sections are very much centred on the latter two disciplines. The sub-categories covered (and therefore, those excluded) are a result of an analysis of the course contents of several taught Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and TESOL*.
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Defining Applied Linguistics…
…more than just linguisitcs applied?
The emphasis in applied linguistics is on language users and the ways in which they use languages, contrary to theoretical linguistics which studies the language in the abstract not referring it to any particular context, or language. According to Caudery (2002), Kaplan argues that. "Early applied linguistics was dominantly associated with language teaching... but has since then diversified."
According to Grabe (in Kaplan 2002, 4), "Applied linguistics is driven first by real-world problems rather than theoretical explorations," and lists the following areas among others:
» Language learning issues
Emergence, awareness, rules, use, context, automaticity, attitudes, expertise
» Language teaching issues
Resources, training, practice, interaction, understanding, use, contexts, inequalities, motivations, outcomes
» Language contact issues
Language and culture
» Language inequality issues
Ehnicity, class, region, gender, and age
» Language assessment issues
Validity, reliability, usability, responsibility
» Language use issues
Dialects, registers, discourse communities, gate-keeping situations, limited access to services
» Language and technology issues
Learning, assessment, access and use
According to Juliane House (CUP 2009, 5), "Applied linguistics is a broadly interdisciplinary field concerned with promoting our understanding of the role language plays in human life. At its centre are theoretical and empirical investigations of real-world issues in which lang uage plays a leading role. Applied linguistics focuses on the relationship between theory and practice, using the insights gained from the theory-practice interface for solving language-related problems in a principled way."
House goes on to state, "Applied linguistics is not 'linguistics applied', because it deals with many more issues than purely linguistic ones, and because disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnography, anthropology, educational research, communication and media studies also inform applied linguistic research."
According to Dawn Knight (CUP 2009, 6), "Applied linguistics is a discipline which explores the relations between theory and practice in language with particular reference to issues of language use. It embraces contexts in which people use and learn languages and is a platform for systematically addressing problems involving the use of language and communication in real-world situations."
Knight goes on to state, "It draws on a range of disciplines, including linguistics. In consequence, applied linguistics has applications in several areas of language study, including language learning and teaching, the psychology of language processing, discourse analysis, stylistics and corpus analysis."
According to Richard Hudson (CUP 2009, 4), "Applied linguistics provides the theoretical and descriptive foundations for the investigation and solution of language-related problems, especially those of language education."
Hudson goes on to argue that, "It is generally agreed that in spite of its name AL is not simply the ‘application’ of research done in linguistics... "On the one hand, it looks beyond linguistics for relevant research and theory, so it often involves the synthesis of research from a variety of disciplines, including linguistics... on the other it has been responsible for the development of original research in a number of areas of linguistics - e.g. bilingualism and genre."
Cambridge University Press [CUP]. (2009). What is Applied Linguistics?. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Caudery, Tim. (2002) . Review of The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics. TESL-EJ, 6(3).
Kaplan, Robert B. (Ed.) (2002). The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press.
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