BY AYSHA MOHD SHARIF

What are the matters of concern/issues in Applied Linguistics? How are

these related in the teaching of English for Specific purposes?

Crystal (2001: 23) defines applied linguistics as “a branch of linguistics where the primary

concern is the application of linguistic theories, methods and findings to the elucidation of

language problems which have arisen in other areas of experience. The well-developed

branch of applied linguistics is the teaching and learning of foreign languages.” As Crystal

highlights that the primary concern is to the elucidation of language problems , it shows that

the interpretation of applied linguistics has been done in several ways by different researchers

who interpret different understanding of the field. Researchers like Brumfit, Widdowson, and

Crystal have different interpretations of applied linguistics. Due to different interpretations,

the pedagogical preoccupation of applied linguistics gradually gave way to a more extensive

focus by including more aspects of the academic study of language. Due to this, different

researcher focused on different academic study which included vocabulary, grammar, forensic

studies, and discourse studies and so on. Therefore, Tudor (2005) highlighted that the

identification of applied linguistics with language teaching methodology is very loose. The

main difference seems to be in the degree of involvement of applied linguistics in the subject

matter of language teaching. With different subject matter of language teaching, spoken and

written discourses are mainly utilized in the study of applied linguistics. The written or

spoken discourses can be related to any issue which may be related to language policies,

gender issues, and sociolinguistic aspects. Some applied linguists are concerned with helping

planners and policy-makers develop and implement a language policy, or develop

programmes for immigrants coming to the United States or other countries. Therefore one the

main issue in applied linguistics is that it tends to be concerned only with some aspects of

language teaching and learning, namely those which are related to language itself. Strictly
speaking, foreign or second language methodology covers a much more extended area than

that of linguistics application. As highlighted by Tudor (2005), applied linguistics has also

been utilized in the study of special learning needs of specific populations. The special

learning needs of specific populations can be seen as the idea of English for specific

purposes where applied linguistics is also applied in teaching. Applied linguistics is defined

as an interdisciplinary field of linguistics that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to

language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics

are education, psychology, computer science, communication research, anthropology, and

sociology. As generally perceived that applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of

research for the study of all aspects of language use. Being a non-language-specific field, it

primarily deals with mother, foreign and second language acquisition but also examines the

relationship between language and such areas as the media, law, or communication which

also highlights the element of ESP where there is a relationship between language and other

areas. Another main issue is that when teaching applied linguistics, mostly there is a

confusion whether the branches of applied linguistics are been taught on their own like

discourse analysis or the practical language learning and teaching problems are included in

them while teaching as applied linguistics is more related to the real world problems than the

theoretical explorations. But interestingly the emergence of this issue of being related to

applied linguistics relates it well with ESP teaching which also to an extent deals with the

problems of the learners with the needs of the real world. ESP, a field of English language

teaching targets in fulfilling the needs of the learners to meet the real world needs. The

language used in ESP is a loaded weapon giving speakers power to effect changes in their

immediate environment but, at the same time, this weapon can backfire if mishandled. It is

vital that ESP students realize this power dimension and be trained to be careful and

calculating in its handling. The connections in ESP between the real world and the language

are context-governed.
As Applied linguistics is a vast field of different techniques which incorporates language

elements like grammar, vocabulary, pragmatics in language learning and teaching, it has a

dual functional characteristic where on one side it is dealing with the primary issues of

fields like second and foreign language acquisition and pedagogy, sociolinguistics, discourse

analysis where it majorly focuses on the theories of language acquisition, processes involved

in acquisition, practical issues of language pedagogy whereas on the other hand it is more of

interdisciplinary and academic biased in nature where it focuses on second language

acquisition, language for specific purposes, language teaching, curriculum and focus on the

research methods of applied linguistics which shows both the characteristics of being

interdisciplinary and academic which is again related to ESP which is also interdisciplinary

and academic in nature where different disciplines meet with language and are taught

academically in different the contexts and the needs of the real world. The second functional

characteristic of applied linguistics influences ESP teaching as ESP teaching is not about

restricted language theories and rules but focus more on communicative aspects of language

use. Different disciplines are connected with language which makes ESP significant as the

language used in a particular discipline is taught in an ESP class. ESP teaching is very

different from other fields of language teaching as it also does not focus on primary ideas and

theories of language acquisition as applied linguistics primary function but focuses on the

acquisition of language for communicating in a particular situation. It is taught academically

and non-academically also to learners of different disciplines where the learners may be

second language acquirers or a foreign language acquirers. But while teaching the application

of teaching vocabulary, grammar for that particular situation is done with the principles of

applied linguistics.

Therefore according to (Kramsch, 2000) mainly concern is with the level of performance and

refers to the systematic application of validated principles to practical contexts. Although it

draws on theory, it is generally reserved for practitioners in language classrooms. This level

of performance also predetermines the issues of its focus, such as language resources and

skills, classroom tasks and activities, management of learning, ways of motivating students,

lesson planning, curriculum and syllabus design, error correction, textbook/materials design,

selection and evaluation (Tudor, 2005).