ADVANCED

APPLIED
LINGUISTICS
What is Applied Linguistics? Instructor: Prof. Dr. Siusana Kweldju

Origin

The development and the focus of applied linguistics are affected by the global
spread of English and the instruction of the language in different situations, and,
of course, the development in the scientific study of language itself.

Basically, for some linguists, applied linguistics deals with the application of
linguistic theories, but linguists, like Hudson (1999), for example, conceives of
applied linguistics includes linguistics, but not solely focused on linguistics; it
is a synthesis of research from many disciplines (Hudson, 1990). In its early
stages until fairly recently, AL was practically identified with scientific
language teaching. Robert Lado’s book Language Teaching bore the carefully
chosen subtitle A Scientific Approach (Lado, 1964). Allen and Corder (1975)
began their editorial preface to volume 2 of the Edinburgh Course in Applied
linguistics with the following words:
Our aim in AL is to make use of the knowledge and insights gained
from scientific investigations into the nature of language, in the hope
that we may solve some of the problems which arise in the planning
and implementation of language teaching programs

Relationship between Applied Linguistics and General Linguistics,

and the Development

Therefore, until today we are still talking about the scientific status of AL as a
field of inquiry, entailing its nature and scope. In other words, we are still
seeking to understand the philosophy of applied linguistics. One big question is
what precisely the nature of the relation between AL and its parent discipline,
theoretical/general linguistics. Is applied linguistics only destined to remain
forever subaltern to its parent discipline? Could it be the case that exaggerated
subservience to its parent discipline has only stifled the growth of applied
linguistics?

We have learned a number of definitions of applied linguistics, specifying its

nature and scope of investigation. Since it was first established by Pit Corder in
the 50s it has developed into new areas such as first language acquisition,
computational linguistics, forensic linguistics, speech therapy, neurolinguistics,
second language acquisition research, and a lot more. Gradually, however,
many areas have declared unilateral independence from applied linguistics, and
evolved into new disciplines.

Applied linguistics is difficult to define because of the coexistence of several

different conceptualizations of the diverse field. Thus, it affects what courses to
offer in the applied linguistics program, what kind of faculty to hire, and what
type of research programs shall be funded, and what should be the linguist’s
social responsibility.

In many cases, applied linguistics is defined according to the researcher’s

interest on a particular field or theoretical preoccupation rather than the
practical problems of learning or using language in specific contexts. For
example, the study of SLA for validating linguistic theory.

In its broader definition of applied linguistics, for some scholars

sociolinguistics, which is a particular area of investigation or a discipline, is part
of it. Applied linguistics is a larger categorization of linguistics that
encompasses multiple disciplines, one of which is sociolinguistics. However,
Krashen still highlighted that although linguistics, sociolinguistics and applied
linguistics overlap as they develop alongside each other, applied linguistics
concentrates on the learner and their needs, whilst theoretical linguists study
language in the abstract. Sociolinguistics in the domain of applied linguistics
investigates, among others, what social factors affect language learning.

In another situation, the initial interest of applied linguists is learning and

teaching issues, but later they expand to broader sociolinguistic concerns, while
paying close attention to continuing education in a context of multilingual
communities. They are concerned with how to analyze complex linguistic
situations and the components of their mainly bilingual communicative
repertoires, in relation to status, attitudes, and consciousness.
That more and more students are interested in taking applied linguistics courses
as job openings today are mostly not on the theoretical pure/formal linguistics,
but applied linguistics, which needs additional expertise in non-theoretical
areas, such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics,
computational linguistics, and more practical areas such as language teaching,
and foreign anguage teacher preparation programs, bilingual education,
freshman composition and rhetoric, and so on.

Field of Inquiry: the Radical vs the Current Researchers

The issue concerning the scope of applied linguistics today is the opposing
concerns between the radical proponents and the current researchers. The
former perceives that applied linguistics should be solely concerned with
language problems in classroom setting, while the latter considers applied
linguistics as an open field of meticulous enquiry into diverse contexts of
application where language, and not necessarily English, is the main focus.

Unlike the traditional applied linguists who focused on making language

pedagogy more effective, the contemporary ones see applied linguistics as an
eclectic, interdisciplinary field. It does not only focus on pedagogic interests,
but also political interest, socio-cultural concerns, socio-cognitive
approaches, visual semiotics, in addition to interests and applications that
attempt to solve contemporary concerns where language, in all its forms,
is the main feature.

In other words, the field of applied linguistics has expanded in recent years to
focus on all aspects of language use. It may also be concerned with politics and
institutional discourse, language of advertisement and electronic texts, the role
of new technologies in supporting the development of language and literacy
skills, racial prejudice in language, discourse prosody, and sociocognitive
approaches in discourse analysis, language rituals and language play,
language use to maintain institutional identities among inmates, visual semiotics
in relation to gender and identity.

The current applied linguistic theories are rooted in the post-modernist and
post-structuralist thoughts of the 1980s. It transcends theoretical linguistic
models and is at the same time not restricted to language teaching. Language
analysis is beyond the correct applications of grammar and phonologic rules. It
considers the stakeholders’ sociolinguistic conditions of the language
contact, explicitly in terms of attitudes, perceptions, ideologies, identity and
planning.

(a) The critical theoretical model

Fairclough (1989) advocates a critical theoretical model of language

studies in which a theory on language study is not only on language units, but
also language in its holistic way and the application of critical discourse
technique, such as connections between language, power and ideology, while
Pennycook (1994) offers the inclusion of the context of language users, that is
the speakers and their interaction in a wider social, cultural and political
context.

Post-structuralist and post-modernist critiques on language study, therefore,

paved the way for an explanatory theory on language that extends beyond
the linguistic or social normative to account for centripetal and centrifugal
forces entwined with the language application.

(b) The Extreme Open Model

Extreme open model is in response to super-diversity (Ramton, 2011) that is

characterised by a tremendous increase in the categories of migrants, not only in
terms of nationality, ethnicity, language and religion, but also in terms of
motives, patterns, and itineraries of migration, processes of insertion into the
labour and housing markets of the host societies, and so on.

In this context Rampton (1997) proposes a fluid theoretical model of applied

linguistics that involves all users. Rampton’s (1997) model is “understood as an
open field of interest in language, in which those inhibiting or passing through
simply show a common commitment to the potential value of dialogue
with people who are different, there is no knowing where, between whom or on
what the most productive discussions will emerge.