Search form Search. Tucker The term 'applied linguistics' refers to a broad range of activities which involve solving some language-related problem or addressing some language-related concern.
Early work to improve the quality of foreign language teaching by Professors Charles Fries University of Michigan and Robert Lado University of Michigan, then Georgetown University helped to bring definition to the field as did the publication of a new journal, Language Learning: A Quarterly Journal of Applied Linguistics During the late s and the early s, the use of the term was gradually broadened to include what was then referred to as 'automatic translation'.
Applied Linguistics Today Over the intervening years, the foci of attention have continued to broaden. Amsterdam, , p. Why Can't Computers Use English? This means that deaf people who access public services such as the NHS are often reliant on their second language —English— to communicate, which may result in communication difficulty and take unwarranted time.
Particularly in the case of a medical emergency, every second counts. Graham Turner , a specialist in Interpreting and Translation at Heriot-Watt University, took action to address this problem by launching the first degree in BSL interpreting in Scotland. Dealing with neighbour disputes. There are areas of miscommunication between staff police and mediators and members of the public which this research set out to redress. Conversation analysis was applied to hours of audio-recordings of neighbour-related crime interviews and telephone encounters in a project led by Prof.
A further debate has centered around the connection between applied linguistics as an academic discipline and the domain of real-world language problems e. It is certainly true that much research under the umbrella of applied linguistics retains a somewhat detached, descriptive quality to it, contributing to knowledge about a language problem in a real-world context, but not suggesting ways to ameliorate that problem or demonstrating success in addressing the problem.
This criticism is a legitimate one, but not one that undermines the definition of applied linguistics itself. There are certainly cases in which applied linguists have drawn on combined disciplinary resources, including language and language learning knowledge, and taken the key steps from basic resource knowledge, to specific research applications, to learning outcome comparisons, to curriculum development, and to instructional use and evaluation of outcomes and then leading to a new cycle in this problem-solving process.
Consequently, it remains reasonable to see applied linguistics as a discipline that engages interdisciplinary resources including linguistic resources to address real-world language problems.
This general definition certainly does not come to terms with all of the claims that applied linguistics is not a discipline. Aside from the major issues noted above, critics have also noted that applied linguistics is too broad and too fragmented, that it demands expert knowledge in too many fields, that it does not have a set of unifying research paradigms.
However, it is possible to interpret applied linguistic as a discipline much in the way that many other disciplines are defined. Applied linguistics, like many disciplines, has a core and a periphery, and the periphery blurs into other disciplines that may—or may not—want to be allied. This picture may not be very different from that of several other disciplines, particularly those that are relatively new, give or take a hundred years.
A quick look at a number of well-recognized disciplines will reveal that they too are open to charges that their fields are too fragmented and too broad, that they demand expertise in too many related subfields, and that they do not have a set of unifying research paradigms. Obvious, recognizable disciplines that can be included under these criticisms include chemistry, biology, education, English, history, and psychology, just to note some of the larger fields.
We tend to note the messiness that is close at hand and see distant disciplines as tidier and better-defined entities. Disciplinary histories, current controversies, blurred borders, and new technologies and taxonomies of subfields within each discipline would suggest some of the same issues that confront applied linguists as they seek to describe disciplinary status. In the case of other disciplines, time and recognition have provided a much greater sense of inevitability, a sense that is likely to accrue to applied linguistics over the next 50 years.
Accepting the messiness of a newer discipline and the controversies that are inevitable in describing an intellectual territory, applied linguistics, nonetheless, exhibits many defining disciplinary characteristics. These points reflect commonalities that most applied linguists would agree on:. Applied linguistics has many of the markings of an academic discipline: many professional journals, many professional associations, international recognition for the field, funding resources for research projects.
The field contains a large number of individuals who see themselves as applied linguists, as trained professionals who are hired in academic institutions as applied linguists, as students who want to become applied linguists, there is a need for a recognized means for training these students to become applied linguists.
Applied linguistics has conferences with well-articulated subareas for conference-abstract submissions. These subareas generally define applied linguistics in ways quite similar to the problem-based list previously provided; categories for submission for the American Association for Applied Linguistics AAAL have, for example, remained remarkably stable over the past 10 years.
Applied linguistics recognizes that linguistics must be included as a core knowledge base in the training and work of applied linguistics, although the purpose of most applied linguists' work is not simply to apply linguistics to achieve a solution.
Moreover, direct applications of language knowledge is not necessarily a criterion that defines applied linguistics work. How one trains effective language teachers may involve research that does not refer directly to aspects of language knowledge, but rather to aspects of learning psychology cognitive processes , educational practice task development and sequencing , and social interactions autonomy, status, turn taking.
Applied linguistics is grounded in real-world language-driven problems and issues primarily linked by practical matters involving language use, language evaluation, language contact and multilingualism, language policies, and language learning and teaching. There is also, however, the recognition that these practically driven problems have extraordinary range, and this range tends to dilute any sense of common purpose or common professional identification among practitioners.
Applied linguistics typically incorporates other disciplinary knowledge beyond linguistics in its efforts to address language-based problems. Applied linguists commonly draw upon and are often well trained in areas of anthropology, computer programming, education, economics, English, literature, measurement, political science, psychology, sociology, or rhetoric. Applied linguistics is, of necessity, an interdisciplinary field, because few practical language issues can be addressed through the knowledge resources of any single discipline, including linguistics.
For example, genuinely to influence language learning, one must be able to call upon, at the very least, resources from educational theory, ethnomethodology sociology , and learning theory as well as linguistics. Applied linguistics commonly includes a core set of issues and practices that are readily identifiable as work carried out by many applied linguists e.
Applied linguistics generally incorporates or includes several identifiable subfields: for example, corpus linguistics, forensic linguistics, language testing, language policy and planning, lexicography, second language acquisition, second language writing, and translation and interpretation. Applied linguistics often defines itself broadly in order to include issues in other language-related fields e. The great majority of members in these other fields do not see themselves as applied linguists; however, the broad definition for applied p.
These nine points indicate the developing disciplinary nature of applied linguistics. There are certainly difficulties for the field, and there are problems in attempting to define and differentiate the core versus the periphery. There are also problems in deciding how one becomes an applied linguist and what training and what duration of training might be most appropriate. But these problems are no more intractable than those faced by many disciplines, even relatively established ones.
The coming decade of research and inquiry in applied linguistics will continue the lines of investigation noted in the second and third sections of this chapter. Applied linguists will need to know more about computer technologies, statistical applications, sociocultural influences on research, and new ways to analyze language data. Testing and assessment issues will not be limited to testing applications but will also have a much greater influence on other areas of applied linguistics research.
Issues such as validity, fairness, and ethics will extend into other area of applied linguistics. These issues will also lead to continued discussions on the most appropriate research methods in different settings.
Additionally, applied linguistics will direct more attention to issues of motivation, attitudes, and affect because those factors potentially influence many language-based problems. Similarly, learning theories as discussed and debated in educational and cognitive psychology will become a more central concern in language learning and teaching. The information on this page is designed to help you explore possible careers. Use the links below to navigate to different areas of the page.
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