Applied linguistics uses knowledge from linguistics and other fields like psychology, sociology, and anthropology to investigate and solve practical language-related problems in various contexts. It applies linguistic theories and methods to issues in areas such as education, workplace communication, language planning, and translation. While linguistics studies language in the abstract, applied linguistics is problem-driven and seeks to understand how language operates in real-world situations. It establishes a reciprocal relationship between theoretical expertise and practical experience with language issues. Applied linguistics plays an important role in language education by drawing on linguistic theories to inform teaching methods and stimulate innovation in language pedagogy.

1. BIL6024 ISSUES IN APPLIED
LINGUISTICS
Week 1

2. Question
• What is your understanding of the term
‘linguistics’?

3. LINGUISTICS
• Widdowson (1996:3) cited in Davies (1999)
says that ‘linguistics is the name given to the
discipline which studies human language’.
• Its purpose is to identify some relatively stable
linguistic knowledge which underlies language
behaviour.

4. Question
• So, what is ‘applied linguistics’?

5. What is ‘applied’?
• The Shorter Oxford English Dictionaries (cited
in Davies, 1999) defines ‘applied’ as ‘put to
practical use; practical as opposed to abstract
or theoretical’.

6. WHAT IS APPLIED LINGUISTICS?
• (1). According to Richards et al. (1985:16)
cited in Davies (1999), applied linguistics is
‘…the study of language and linguistics in
relation to practical problems.’

7. Applied linguistics uses information from
sociology, psychology, anthropology, and
information theory as well as from linguistics
in order to develop its own theoretical
models of language and language use, and
then uses this information and theory in
practical areas such as syllabus design, speech
therapy, language planning, stylistics etc.

8. • (2). According to Carter (1993)cited in Davies
(1999), applied linguistics refers to the
application of linguistics theories, descriptions
and methods in the solution of language
problems which have arisen in a range of
human, cultural and social contexts.

9. • (3). According to Cook (2003), it is the
academic discipline concerned with the
relation of knowledge about language to
decision making in the real world.
• Sets out to investigate problems in the world
in which language is implicated – both
educational and social problems.

10. Some Examples
• What language skills should children attain
beyond basic literacy?
• Should children speaking a dialect be
encouraged to maintain it or steered towards
the standard form of a language?
• In communities with more than one language
which ones should be used in schools?

11. Examples
• Should everyone learn foreign languages and,
if so, which one or ones?
• Should every child study literature?
• Should the growth of English as the
international lingua franca be welcomed or
deplored?
• Is it better for people to learn each other’s
languages or use translations?

12. BACKGROUND
 Applied linguistics started in Europe and the United States,
and developed internationally.
 Initially, it focused on the principles and practices on the
basis of linguistics, and was referred to as ‘linguistic-applied’
(applications of insights from structural linguistics).
The ‘linguistic-applied’ approach to language
teaching was practiced by Leonard
Bloomfield, through the US Army Specialized
Training Program, and by Charles C. Fries at
the University of Michigan (in the 1940s).

13. In 1948, the first journal to bear the term
‘applied linguistics’ – Language Learning: A
Journal of Applied Linguistics – was published
in Univ. of Michigan.
 In 1950s, applied linguistics established itself as a
response to the narrowing of focus in linguistics with
the advent of generative linguistics, and maintain a
socially accountable role, with interest in language
problems (Davies, 1999).

14.  In the 1960s, applied linguistics included second language
acquisition, language planning and policy, and language
assessment.
 In the 1970s, it became more problem-driven field rather
than theoretical-based linguistics, and included activities to
identify, investigate and suggest solutions to language-related
problems in the real world.
 By 1990s onwards, applied linguistics has developed to
include more interdisciplinary field of study that include,
among others, critical studies and multilingualism.

15. Question
• What is the relationship between linguistics
and applied linguistics?

16. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LINGUISTICS (L) AND APPLIED
LINGUISTICS (AL)
Linguistics (L) – the academic discipline
concerned with the study of language in general
(Cook, 2003).
Looks for generalities underlying actual
appearances.
Represents an abstract idealization of language
rather than the way it is experienced in the real
world.
There are different schools of linguistics to draw
upon.

17. Idealization (example)
 Generative linguistics (Noam Chomsky’s view – 1950s
onwards)
 - the proper subject matter of linguistics should be the
representation of language in the mind (competence),
rather than the way in which people actually use
language in everyday life (performance)(Cook, 2003).
 - This internal language is essentially biological rather
than social and is separate from outside experience.
 - It is to be investigated not through the study of actual
language use in context, but through the consideration
of invented sentences intuitively felt to be acceptable
instances of the language (Cook, 2003).

18. • However, Applied Linguistics (AL) is not simply
a matter of matching up findings about
language with pre-existing problems but of
using findings to explore how the perception
of problems might be changed.
• When problems are reformulated from a
different point of view they become more
amenable to solution (Cook, 2003).

19. The relationship?
• Thus, applied linguistics is a quest for common
ground. It establishes a reciprocal relationship
between experience and expertise, between
professional concerns with language problems
and linguistics (Cook, 2003).

20. Linguistic approaches more relevant to
Applied Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• - Focuses on the relation between language
and society. Endeavours to find systematic
relationships between social groupings and
contexts, and the variable ways in which
languages are used (Cook, 2003).

21. Functional linguistics
- Concerns with language as a means of
communication, the purposes it fulfils, and how
people actually use their language (Cook, 2003).
Corpus linguistics
- Vast databanks containing millions of words of
actual language in use can be searched within
seconds to yield extensive information about
word frequencies and combinations which is not
revealed by intuition (Cook, 2003).

22. SCOPE OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS
• General conceptual areas (Cook, 2003):
• (1). Language and education
• (2). Language, work and law
• (3). Language, information and effect

23. (1). Language and Education
• First-language education
• Second/foreign language education
• Clinical linguistics – the study and treatment
of speech and communication impairments.
• Language testing

24. (2). Language, Work and Law
• Workplace communication
• Language planning
• Forensic linguistics – the deployment of
linguistic evidence in criminal and other legal
investigations.

25. (3). Language, Information and
Effect
Literary stylistics – the study of the relationship
between linguistic choices and effects in
literature.
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) – the study of
the relationship between linguistic choices and
effects in persuasive uses of language.
Translation and interpretation
Information design
Lexicography – the planning and compiling of
both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, etc.

26. Who are involved?
• View 1:
• - Applied linguistics is a component of
linguistics. It is linguistics outside the study. All
linguists can participate. And only linguists can
participate.
• - Sees applied linguistics as an activity of
linguistics, sheltering under the umbrella and
drawing on it for inspiration and status
(Davies, 1999).

27. View 2:
- Applied linguistics does not belong with any
exclusivity to linguistics (Widdowson,
1980)(cited in Davies, 1999). The practitioners
of applied linguistics are drawn from a wider
pool (Rampton, 1997)(cited in Davies, 1999).
- Anyone can ‘do’ applied linguistics.
- Is there a particular profession of applied
linguists?

28.  View 3:
 - Applied linguists are really still linguists who happen
to be involved in applications, which they may label as
applied linguistics (Davies, 1999).
 - As their knowledge and skills are insufficient for
those application, they need the cooperation of other
professionals in relevant fields, such as educationists,
psychologists, statisticians, sociologists, speech
therapists, translators, literary critics, computer
scientists, anthropologists, etc. (Davies, 1999).

29. Methodology of Applied Linguistics
 Complex.
 It must refer to the findings and theories of linguistics,
choosing among the different schools and approaches,
and making these theories relevant to the problem in
hand.
 At the same time, it must investigate and take into
account the experience and needs of the people
involved in the problem itself.
 It must then seek to relate these two perspectives to
each other, attempting to reformulate each. And it
must undertake investigation and theorizing of its own
(Cook, 2003)

30. Question
• How important is applied linguistics in the
field of language education?

31. Applied Linguistics in Language
Education
Mackey (1965:253)cited in Davies (1999) says
that ‘…throughout the history of formal
language teaching there has always been
some sort of applied linguistics, as it is known
today…..if there is one single source which
has been responsible for stimulating
innovation and activity (in language teaching),
it is applied linguistics.’

32. R.H. Robbins (1987:147)cited in Davies (1999)
states ‘…the teacher who understands and can
make use of the methods of scientific linguistics
will find the task of presenting a language to his
pupils very much lightened and facilitated.'
According to Richards (1985:19)cited in Davies
(1999), a role of applied linguistics is the study of
second and foreign language learning and
teaching.

33. Handout
• Read the article and discuss:
“What is applied linguistics?”
- Vivian Cook, Newcastle University