ENG522 Notes

The International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) proclaims: Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of research and practice dealing with practical problems of language and communication that can be identified, analyzed or solved by applying available theories, methods or results of Linguistics or by developing new theoretical and methodological frameworks in linguistics to work on these problems. AILA proclaims, with ‘practical problems of language and communication’, the term ‘problem’ does raise issues of its own. Ron Macaulay (2011) presents ‘Seven Ways of Looking at Language’: language as meaning language as sound language as form language as communication language as identity language as history language as symbol These can be summarized in three rather different conceptualizations of language:

1. as a particular representational system based on the biologically rooted language faculty;
2. as complex and historically evolved patterns of structures;
3. as a social practice and a culturally loaded value system.

Ben Rampton (1997, p. 14) described Applied Linguistics as ‘an open field of interest in language’, while David Block (2009) called it ‘an amalgam of research interests’.

The Need and Scope of Applied Linguistics

Applied linguistics is a theoretical term that covers interdisciplinary domain in linguistics to solve real world problems in the use of language in various contexts such as translation, literacy, language education and teaching, lexicography, and others which belong to the application of language. The scope of applied linguistics can be summarized as follows:

1. Language and Teaching: This scope covers the approaches and methods which are used in teaching second language.
2. Language and Society: This scope is also called sociolinguistics which studies the relationship between the society and language. It answers some questions emerge in the use of language in society.
3. Language and Education/Learning: There are some activities involve in this scope. They are 1st language education, additional language education, clinical linguistics, and language testing.
4. Language, Work, and Law: It covers the studies of workplace communication, language planning, and forensic linguistics.
5. Language, Information, and Effect: The other studies such as literary stylistics, CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis), translation and interpretation, and information design belong to this scope.

Linguistics and Applied Linguistics: A Difficult Relationship

Linguistics and applied linguistics a difficult relationship… Linguistics: is the academic discipline concerned with the study of language in general. In some degree is bound to represent an abstract idealization of language. One particularly influential type of idealization is that used in the generative linguistics by Noam Chomsky. The representation of language in the mind (competence) the way in which people use language in everyday life (performance) In Functional linguistics the concern is with language as a means of communication, and how people actually use their language. Corpus linguistics looks for the frequencies and combinations in words that are not usually revealed by intuition.

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One important source of that enrichment has been the journal Language Learning, published from the University of Michigan. Corder (1973) was well aware that in limiting the coverage of applied linguistics to language teaching he was open to criticism.

Definitions of Applied Linguistics

“the theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue” (Brumfit,

“the focus of applied linguistics is on trying to resolve language-based problems that people encounter in the real world, whether they be learners, teachers, supervisors, academics, lawyers, service providers, those who need social services, test takers, policy developers, dictionary makers, translators, or a whole range of business clients” (Grabe, 2002, p. 9). Kaplan suggests that applied linguists “are likely to move toward the analysis of new data, rather than continue to argue new theory” (Kaplan, 2002, p. 514). “the term ‘applied linguistics’ raises fundamental difficulties, if for no other reason than that it is difficult to decide on what counts as ‘linguistics’. Given these difficulties within linguistics proper, it is perhaps unfair to expect clean solutions and clear delimitations for defining applied linguistics’ ” (Kaplan & Grabe, 2000, pp. 5–

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History of Linguistics:

Angelis summarizes this history as follows: Applied Linguistics in North America does have identifiable roots in linguistics.

The British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) was formally established in 1967, with the following aims: “the advancement of education by fostering and promoting, by any lawful charitable means, the study of language use, language acquisition and language teaching and the fostering of inter-disciplinary collaboration in this study” (BAAL)

Methodological Consideration:

Applied Linguistics is a methodology in itself, because it is concerned with real-world problems in which language plays a central role. In general terms, quantitative methodology aims to uncover facts and truths in an objective way by delineating patterns or structures, whereas qualitative methodology attempts to interpret meanings of and relationships between objects in context. Whatever methodology you choose to adopt, there are certain steps you need to take in conducting a research project. These typically include:

1. defining the research question or questions
2. collecting evidence
3. analysing and presenting findings

Defining the research question Defining the research question is a crucial first step. The question has to be researchable, which means that

1. there are potentially different answers to it
2. there is evidence available for you with which to answer the question

The most common ways of finding research questions are through personal experience or reading other people’s work. These two ways also often go hand in hand with each other. A good literature review serves two closely related purposes:

1. to make the reader understand why you are doing what you are doing in the way you are doing it
2. to prepare your own argument

Research Design:

An etic study is often known as a comparative study, which involves comparing one individual, or situation, or behaviour, with another. An emic study, on the other hand, is one in which researchers try to explore and discover patterns and meanings in situ. Experimental studies collect data under controlled conditions. The purpose of the ‘control’ is to keep everything, except for the variables under investigation, as similar or comparable as possible so that the experimental results can be reliably attributed to the changes in variables.