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)
(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
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| Noam Chomsky |
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.
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.
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