Lecture 1 What Is Applied Linguistics

Lecture 1: What Is Applied Linguistics?

1. The difficulty of defining applied linguistics

广义：

The

applied

linguistics

is

so

hard

to

define

in

that

the

research

topics

the

applied

linguists

are

interested in are so varied that

it’s even hard to list them a

ll in a piece of paper.

In the early days, applied linguistics was thought as “linguistics

-

applied” at least from the outside

of the field. See the definition in the textbook:

Refer to the fields to which

linguistics is applied

in order to solve language-related problems, like

language acquisition.

Syntax, morphology,

phonetics

In order to study SLA, we need much more theories than linguistics. Theories from the academic

fields like psychology, education, are also applied.

Later

on,

researches

of

applied

linguistics

were

shifted

to

the

language-related

practical

problems

in the real world.

与理论语言学对比

(Basically, any discipline which is related to language can be called applied linguistics).

“L

iteracy, speech pathology, deaf education

…

, authorship identification

(Schmitt 2002: 2)

”

I will focus on the things that you, as a language learner, and perhaps a future language teacher,

are interested in, such as

SLA:

language transfer, interlanguage, fossilization, learning strategies, aptitude, motives, etc.

Second language teaching

Psycholinguistics, Cognitive linguistics,

Applied

linguistics

is

an

interdisciplinary

field

of

study

that

identifies,

investigates,

and

offers

solutions to language-related real-life problems.

Applied linguistics also included solution of language-related problems in the real world.

狭义：

The study of second (foreign) language learning and teaching.

“

The

dominant

application

has

always

been

the

teaching

and

learning

of

second

or

foreign

language (Schmitt 2002)

”

SLA (second language acquisition)

The first time linguistics was applied to solve the language-related problems was when a famous

journal

about

TESOL

1

was

published.

It

was

in

1948

that

this

journal

was

published

from

the

University

of

Michigan.

The

journal

’

s

title

is

Language

Learning:

A

Journal

of

Applied

Linguistics

2

(to foreigners).

The professors who published the journal are the first to propose the term

“

applied linguistics

”

.

1

TESOL

(teaching English for speakers of other languages) includes

TESL

(teaching English as a second

language) and

TEFL

(teaching English as a foreign language).

2

Major journals of the field include

Annual Review of Applied Linguistics

Applied Linguistics

International

Review of Applied Linguistics

International Journal of Applied Linguistics

Issues in Applied Linguistics