Department of English

Semester 5 (Literature Stream)

Module 30: Applied linguistics

Pr. ZAID

Contents

I- Introduction: Applied Linguistics

I.1. History of the term

I.2. Linguistics

I.3. What is Interdisciplinary Linguistics?

I.4. Applied Linguistics Vs. Linguistics Applied

I.5. Restricting the Scope

I.6. Definitions of AL

I.7. Aim of AL

I.8. Need of AL

I.9. The role of AL

I.10. Areas of AL

I.10. branches of AL

I.11. Subfields of Applied Linguistics Defined

I.12. Areas in Applied Linguistics

II.1. Educational psychology

II.1.1. Educational Psychology: Art or Science?

II.1.2. Educational Psychology: Schools of thought/Language Learning Theories

II.2. Structuralism

II.3. Behaviourist Theory

II.3.1. Some of the behaviourist precepts

II.3.1.1. Example: Substitution drill

II.3.2. Criticisms of Behaviorism

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II.4. Cognitive Psychology

II.4.1. Attention, Memory

II.4.1.1. Implications

II.4.4. Intelligence

II.4.4. Implications

II.5. Piaget‟s Constructive Movement

II.6. Innatist or Mentalist Theory

II.7. Krashen‟s Monitor Theory

III- English Language Teaching Methods

• III.1. Grammar-Translation Method

• III.1.2. Criticism of Grammar-Translation Method

• III.2. Direct Language Teaching

• III.2.1. Criticism of Direct Language Teaching

• III.3. Audio-lingual Method

• III.3.1. Criticism of Audiolingual Method

• III.4. Communicative Language Teaching.

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I.1. History of the term

- The term Applied Linguistics (AL) is an Anglo-American coinage.

- Language Learning Journal, published from University of Mechegan in 1948, was „the first
journal in the world to carry the term “applied linguistics” in its title‟ (Language Learning
1967:1).

- It was founded first at the University of Edinburgh School of Applied Linguistics in 1956.

- Then at the Center of Applied Linguistics in Washington D.C. in 1957.

- AL use was propagated by those who clearly wanted to be known as scientists and not as
humanists.

- The label „applied linguistics‟ was misleading as it exludes many disciplines bearing on
language teaching such as psychology and educational theories.

- AL in the past based itself on the findings of theoretical linguistics.

I.2. Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists do work on specific languages, but
their primary goal is to understand the nature of Language in general.

• Linguistics deals with the study of particular languages, and the search for general properties
common to all languages or large groups of languages.

• Linguistics is primarily concerned with the nature of language and communication. There
are broadly three aspects to the study, including language form, language meaning, and
language use in discursive and communicative contexts.

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Linguistics is essential to applied linguistics, but is not the only discipline that contributes to
it.

Pragmatic
s
Semantics Phonology

Linguistic
s
Sociolinguisti
Syntax cs
Morpholog
y

I.3. What is Interdisciplinary Linguistics?

Interdisciplinary studies involve two or more academic disciplines that are considered
distinct. The most common interdisciplinary branches of Linguistics are: • Sociolinguistics, •
Psycholinguistics, • Ethnolinguistics or Anthropological Linguistics, • Computational
Linguistics, • Neurolinguistics.

I.4. Applied Linguistics Vs. Linguistics Applied

Davis and Elder (2006:9) commented on Widdowson‟s distinction between Linguistics

Applied (LA) and Applied Linguistics (AL) thus:

The differences between these modes of intervention is that in the case of linguistics applied,
the assumption is that the problem can be reformulated by the direct and unilateral application
of concepts and terms deriving from linguistic enquiry itself. That is to say, language
problems are amenable to linguistic solutions. In the case of applied linguistics, intervention
is crucially a matter of mediation…applied linguistics…has to relate and reconcile different
representations of reality, including that of linguistics without excluding others. (Widdowson,
2000, p.5).

Davis and Elder (2006) believe that AL looks outwards beyond language in an attempt to
explain and solve social problems while linguistics applied looks inward not to solve language
problems in the real world, but to explicate and test theories about language itself. To them,
this means that LA uses language data to develop our linguistic knowledge about language
while AL studies a language problem with the intention of correcting them (2006, p. 09).

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I.5. Restricting the Scope

- The limitation of the scope of AL to language teaching mattered at this period because after
the 2nd World War the expansion of language teaching (especially of Eng) revealed that many
teachers and trainers and supervisors of teachers lacked knowledge about language.

- That gap is what applied linguistics was set up to fill.

At that time applied linguistics had been successful. Its dedication to language teaching had
been remarked in other areas of language use, especially institutional language use (Howatt
1984), leading to an explosion of applied linguistics training, methodology and, perhaps
above all, labelling in those other areas.

I.6. Definitions of AL

Applied linguistics does not lend itself to an easy definition, perhaps because, as Vivian Cook
remarks: „Applied Linguistics means many things to many people‟ (Cook 2006).

Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that addresses a broad range of

language-related issues in order to understand their roles in the lives of individuals and
conditions in society. It draws on a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches
from various disciplines–from the humanities to the social and natural sciences–as it develops
its own knowledge-base about language, its users and uses, and their underlying social and
material conditions.

The application of linguistic knowledge to real-world problems … whenever knowledge

about language is used to solve a basic language-related problem, we may say that applied
linguistics is being practiced. Applied is a technology which makes abstract ideas and
research findings accessible and relevant to the real world; it mediates between theory and
practice (Kaplan and Widdowson, 1992, p. 76);

„The task of applied linguistics is to mediate‟ between linguistics and language use (Cook
2003: 20).

A synthesis of research from a variety of disciplines, including linguistics (Hudson 1999);

„The academic discipline concerned with the relation of knowledge about language to
decision making in the real world‟ (Cook 2003, p. 5).