2. What is applied linguistics?
Is the ability of using our knowledge to use,
teach, or solve a problem about a language.
The dominant application has always been the
teaching and learning of second or foreign
languages around the world.
3. Devolvement
Samuel Johnson publish an English dictionary, in
1775, which questions so many meanings of
English words.
At the same time Robert Lowth published a
grammar book and confirmed as Johnson’s
book correct.
4. An overview of the century
• One of the main problems with Grammar-
translation was that it focused on the ability to
‘analyze’ language and no the ability to ‘use’ it.
During War World ll, American structural linguists
stepped into the gap and developed a
programmed which borrowed from the Direct
method, especially its emphasis on listening and
speaking. Behaviorism, drew a dominant thoery
if all time.
5. In the 1970’s Hymes added the concept of
communicative competence’, which
emphasized that language competence
consists of more than just being able to ‘form
grammatically correct sentences’.
Late on, technology was advancing throughout
the century, but the advent of powerful and
affordable personal computers probably has
had the greatest impact on applied linguistics.
It also made it possible to analyse large
databases of language, called corpora.
6. Incorporating Social and Contextual
elements into applied linguistics
A new view of congition was called ‘sociocultural
theory’, to influence thinking in applied
linguistics. Sociocultural theory suggests that
in order to understand the human mind, one
must look at these two endowments in an
integrated manner.
