Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Curriculum Definition Collection


Curriculum Definition Collection
  1. Bobbit (1918):  Curriculum is that series of things which children and youth must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well that make up the affairs of adult life; and to be in all respects what adults should be.
  2. Caswell and Campbell (1935):  curriculum is composed of all of the experiences children have under the guidance of the teacher.
  3. A. Bestor (1956):  The curriculum must consist essentially of disciplined study in five great areas: 1) command of mother tongue and the systematic study of grammar, literature, and writing.  2) mathematics, 3) sciences, 4) history, 5) foreign language
  4. B. Othanel Smith (1957):  A sequence of potential experiences is set up in the school for the purpose of disciplining children and youth in group ways of thinking and acting.  This set of experiences is referred to as the curriculum.
  5. Bell (1971): the offering of socially valued knowledge, skills, and attitudes made available to students through a variety of arrangements during the time they are at school, college, or university.
  6. Albert Oliver (1977): curriculum is “the educational program of the school” and divided into four basic elements: 1) program of studies, 2) program of experiences, 3) program of service, 4) hidden curriculum.
  7. Hass (1980): The curriculum is all of the experiences that individual learners have in a program of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives, which is planned in terms of a framework of theory and research or past and present professional practice.
  8. Daniel Tanner and Laurel N. Tanner (1988) "that reconstruction of knowledge and experience systematically developed under the auspices of the school (or university), to enable the learner to increase his or her control of knowledge and experience."
  9. David G. Armstrong (1989):  "is a master plan for selecting content and organizing learning experiences for the purpose of changing and developing learners' behaviors and insights."
  10. Decker Walker (1990): A curriculum consists of those matter: A.  that teachers and students attend to together, B.  that students, teachers, and others concerned generally recognize as important to study and learn, as indicated particularly by using them as a basis for judging the success of both school and scholar, C.  the manner in which these matters are organized in relationship to one another, in relationship to the other elements in the immediate educational situation and in time and space.
Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes ©

Language Definition

LANGUAGE DEFINITON
  1. Languages, like our bodies, are in a perpetual flux, and stand in need of recruits to supply those words which are continually falling into disuse  (C. C. Felton)
  2. Language is incomplete and fragmentary, and merely registers a stage in the average advance beyond ape-mentality. But all men enjoy flashes of insight beyond meanings already stabilized in etymology and grammar. (Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 1933)
  3. Language is human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. (Richard Nordquist)
  4. Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
  5. Language is an art, like brewing or baking; but writing would have been a better simile. It certainly is not a true instinct, for every language has to be learnt. It differs, however, widely from all ordinary arts, for man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, or write. Moreover, no philologist now supposes that any language has been deliberately invented; it has been slowly and unconsciously developed by many steps.(Charles Darwin, Th e Descent of Man, 1871)
  6. Language is an anonymous, collective and unconscious art; the result of the creativity of thousands of generations. (Edward Sapir)
  7. Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity. (Gustave Flaubert)
  8. Language is the biggest barrier to human progress because language is an encyclopedia of ignorance. Old perceptions are frozen into language and force us to look at the world in an old fashioned way. (Edward de Bono)
  9. The language is an intermediate object between sound and thought: it consists in uniting both while simultaneously decomposing them. (Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology, 1964)
  10. Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden. (Karl Kraus, Dicta and Contradicta)
  11. Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation. (Noam Chomsky)
  12. Language is intrinsically approximate, since words mean different things to different people, and there is no material retaining ground for the imagery that words conjure in one brain or another. (John Updike, The New Yorker, December 15, 1997)
  13. Language can also be compared with a sheet of paper: thought is the front and the sound the back; one cannot cut the front without cutting the back at the same time; likewise in language, one can neither divide sound from thought nor thought from sound. (Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics, 1916)
  14. Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. (Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language, Thought, and Reality, 1964)
  15. Language is a labyrinth of paths. You approach from one side and know your way about; you approach the same place from another side and no longer know your way about. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1953)
  16. In language, the ignorant have prescribed laws to the learned. (Richard Duppa, Maxims, 1830)
  17. Language is generally described as a system of sounds used to link sound using words and sentences to meaning (Finegan & Besnier 1989, p. 1).
  18. 18.  The special vocabulary and usages of a scientific, professional, or other group: "his total mastery of screen languagecamera placement, editingand his handling of actors" (Jack Kroll).
  19. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images, or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Poet," 1844)
  20. 20.  Language, if it throws a veil over our ideas, adds a softness and refinement to them, like that which the atmosphere gives to naked objects (William Hazlitt)
Sources:
grammar.about.com, wikipedia encyclopedia, the free online dictionary,

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Experts' Definition of applied Linguistic www.cambridge.org/elt

Applied linguistics means taking language and language theories as the basis from which to elucidate how communication is actually carried out in real life, to identify problematic or challenging issues involving language in many different contexts, and to analyse them in order to draw out practical insights and implications that are useful for the people in those contexts. As an applied linguist, I’m primarily interested in offering people practical and illuminating insights into how language and communication contribute fundamentally to interaction between people.
Anne Burns
Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney

A wit once described an applied linguist as someone with a degree in linguistics who was unable to get a job in a linguistics department. More seriously, looking back at the term ‘applied linguistics’, it first emerged as an attempt to provide a theoretical basis for the activities of language teaching (witness Pit Corder’ s book on the subject from 1973). Later, it became an umbrella term for a variety of disciplines which focus on language issues in such fields as law, speech pathology, language planning, and forensic science. In the meantime, language teaching has evolved its own theoretical foundations, and these include second language acquisition, teacher cognition, pedagogical grammar, and so on, and there is a declining interest in viewing ‘applied linguistics’ as having any relevance to language teaching. Some years ago, many graduate programs in language teaching were labelled as programs in applied linguistics. Today they are generally called programs in TESOL. Many specialists in language teaching, such as myself, don’t call themselves ‘applied linguists’. We are what we are – specialists in language teaching, and we don’t see that adding the label ‘applied linguistics’ to our field adds any further understanding to what we do. Where those in other disciplines find the label ‘applied linguistics’ of use to them, is of course, something they need to decide for themselves. 
Jack C. Richards
Professor and part-time lecturer at the Regional Language Centre, Singapore

Applied linguistics is any attempt to work with language in a critical and reflective way, with some ultimate practical goal in mind. This includes (amongst other things): deliberately trying to learn (or teach) a foreign language or to develop your ability in your native language; overcoming a language impairment; translating from one language to another; editing a piece of writing in a linguistically thoughtful way. It also includes doing any research or developing any ideas or tools which aim to help people do these sorts of things.
Phil Durrant
Visiting Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, Bilkent University

‘Applied linguistics’ (AL) is one of several academic disciplines focusing on how language is acquired and used in the modern world. It is a somewhat eclectic field that accommodates diverse theoretical approaches, and its interdisciplinary scope includes linguistic, psychological and educational topics. Although the field’ s original focus was the study of foreign/second languages, this has been extended to cover first language issues, and nowadays many scholars would consider sociolinguistics and pragmatics to be part of the AL rubric. Recently, AL conferences and journals have reflected the growing influence of psychology-based approaches, which in turn is a reflection of the increasing prevalence of cognitive (neuro)science in the study of human mental functions.
Zoltán Dörnyei
Professor of Psycholinguistics, University of Nottingham


In my discipline (I am a Germanist), applied linguistics is perceived almost exclusively as research into the teaching and learning of the foreign-language, often resulting in the production of teaching materials. However, a broader definition (e.g. Dick Hudson – see references and below) sees applied linguistics as concerned with providing theoretical and empirical foundations for investigating and solving language-related problems in the ‘real world’. This definition would be relevant to some of my research interests; for example, the problems facing speakers of non-standard dialects at schools in Germany. Nevertheless, I tend to regard myself as a sociolinguist rather than an applied linguist, because my main interests are in investigating the use of language as a social practice in a more general way. As is the case for most sociolinguists, I study language in use in a social context although I may not have specific real-life problems in mind when embarking on research.
Wini Davies
Reader in German, Aberystwyth University

Applied linguistics (AL) provides the theoretical and descriptive foundations for the investigation and solution
of language-related problems, especially those of language education (first-language, second-language and foreignlanguage teaching and learning), but also problems of translation and interpretation, lexicography, forensic linguistics and (perhaps) clinical linguistics…The main distinguishing characteristic of AL is its concern with professional activities whose aim is to solve ‘real-world’ language-based problems, which means that research touches on a particularly wide range of issues - psychological, pedagogical, social, political and economic as well as linguistic. As a consequence, AL research tends to be interdisciplinary. It is generally agreed that in spite of its name AL is not simply the ‘application’ of research done in linguistics. On the one hand, AL has to look beyond linguistics for relevant research and theory, so AL research often involves the synthesis of research from a variety of disciplines, including linguistics. On the other hand, AL has been responsible for the development of original research in a number of areas of linguistics - e.g. bilingualism, literacy, genre. Beyond this agreement, there is at least as much disagreement within AL as within linguistics about fundamental issues of theory and method, which leads (among other things) to differences of opinion about the relationships between the two disciplines.
Richard Hudson
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University College London


One way I can answer this broad question is by considering the Applied Linguistic issues that currently interest me, namely how languages interact and what differences we might expect when the languages concerned are not related to each other. For example, the Hong Kong language policy seeks to develop people who are trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. What specific linguistic difficulties will such learners face and how can we help them overcome them? What does it mean to be multilingual? Can we describe a multilingual model from which we could derive useful linguistic benchmarks for the language classroom?
Andy Kirkpatrick
Professor, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Applied linguistics is a broadly interdisciplinary field concerned with promoting our understanding of the role language plays in human life. At its centre are theoretical and empirical investigations of real-world issues in which lang uage plays a leading role. Applied linguistics focuses on the relationship between theory and practice, using the insights gained from the theory-practice interface for solving language-related problems in a principled way. Applied linguistics is not ‘linguistics applied’, because it deals with many more issues than purely linguistic ones, and because disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnography, anthropology, educational research, communication and media studies also inform applied linguistic research. The result is a broad spectrum of themes in applied linguistics such as first, second and foreign language learning and teaching, bilingualism and multilingualism, discourse analysis, translation and interpreting, language policy and language planning, research methodology, language testing, stylistics, literature, rhetoric, literacy and other areas in which language-related decisions need to be taken.
Juliane House
Professor of Foreign Language Teaching, Universität Hamburg



One answer to this question is that it is the study of language in order to address real-world concerns. Another is that it is the study of language, and language-related topics, in specified situations. The real-world concerns include language learning and teaching but also other issues such as professional communication, literacies, translation practices, language and legal or health issues, and many more. Applied linguistics is practically-oriented, but it is also theorydriven and interdisciplinary. Models of how languages are learned and stored, for example, are ‘applied linguistics’, as are descriptions of individual language varieties that prioritise actual and contextualised language use.
Susan Hunston
Head of Department of English, University of Birmingham

Applied linguistics is a discipline which explores the relations between theory and practice in language with particular reference to issues of language use. It embraces contexts in which people use and learn languages and is a platform for systematically addressing problems involving the use of language and communication in realworld situations. Applied linguistics draws on a range of disciplines, including linguistics. In consequence, applied linguistics has applications in several areas of language study, including language learning and teaching, the psychology of language processing, discourse analysis, stylistics, corpus analysis, literacy studies and language planning and policies.
Dawn Knight
Research Associate, University of Nottingham

Definition of Applied Linguistic

Applied linguistics is an area of work that deals with language use in professional settings, translation, speech pathology, literacy, and language education; and it is not merely the application of linguistic knowledge to such settings but is a semiautonomous and interdisciplinary . . . domain of work that draws on but is not dependent on areas such as sociology, education, anthropology, cultural studies, and psychology."
(Alastair Pennycook, Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, 2001)


Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of research and practice dealing with practical problems of language and communication that can be identified, analysed or solved by applying available theories, methods and results of Linguistics or by developing new theoretical and methodological frameworks in Linguistics to work on these problems. Applied Linguistics differs from Linguistics in general mainly with respect to its explicit orientation towards practical, everyday problems related to language and communication.
The problems Applied Linguistics deals with range from aspects of the linguistic and communicative competence of the individual such as first or second language acquisition, literacy, language disorders, etc. to language and communication related problems in and between societies such as e.g. language variation and linguistic discrimination, multilingualism, language conflict, language policy and language planning

Noam Chomsky
The branch of linguistics concerned with practical applications of language studies, for example language teaching, translation, and speech therapy.


Application of the findings of linguistic science to practical language problems, such as language teaching, lexicography, translation, speech therapy, etc.


Applied linguistics is the branch of linguistics concerned with using linguistic theory to address real-world problems. It has been traditionally dominated by the fields of language education and second language acquisition. There is a recurrent tension between those who regard the field as limited to the study of language learning, and those who see it as encompassing all applications of linguistic theory. Both definitions are widely used. 
 The field of applied linguistics first concerned itself with second language acquisition, in particular errors and contrastive analysis, in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s, with the failure of contrastive analysis as a theory to predict errors, applied linguists began to adopt Noam Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar to explain second language learning phenomena. In the 1990s, more and more researchers began to employ research methods from cognitive psychology. Today, the field is a cross-disciplinary mix of departments primarily from linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and education.
http://www.aboutlanguageschools.com/linguistics/

Scope of Applied Linguistics