Handout: An overview of Applied Linguistics

CONTENTS

What is Applied Linguistics?

The Development of Applied Linguistics:
- Early History
- Applied Linguistics during the Twentieth Century
a) An Overview of the Century
b) Incorporating Social/Cultural and Contextual Elements into Applied Linguistics
Issues:
- The Interrelationship of the Areas of Applied Linguistics
- The Move from Discrete to more Holistic and Integrative Perspectives
- Lexico-grammar and Preformulated Expressions
- Bringing the Language Learner into Discussion
- New Perspectives on Teaching the Four Skills
- The Lack of `Black and White answers
A. GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO AL

The origins

The field of applied linguistics dates back to the publication of the first issue of the journal Language Learning: A
Journal of Applied Linguistics around the year 1948. Kaplan (2002) in the preface of the Oxford Handbook of a
Applied Linguistics explains the origins of applied linguistics in the following terms:
the term Applied Linguistics came into existence in the 1940s through the effort of language teachers
who wished to ally themselves with scientific linguists and to disassociate themselves from teachers
of literature. By the mid-1950s, the term was given credence by the opening of the School of Applied
Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh (1956) and by the creation of the Center for Applied
Linguistics (CAL, 1959) in the United States. Soon thereafter, during the 1960s the term was
institutionalized in the International Association of Applied Linguistics (Association Internationale de
Linguistique Applique, [AILA]1964) and in the evolution of a series of national associations of applied
linguistics (e.g., the British Association of Applied Linguistics, 1967). Further, the field was given scope
and substance by the publication of Introducing Applied Linguistics (Corder 1973) and by the
publication of The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics (Allen and Corder 1973/1975). The range
and quality of research was soon being identified through the founding of a number of journals,
including Language Learning (1948), TESOL Quarterly (1967), Applied Linguistics (1980), and the
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (1980).
Because the field came into being during the ascendancy of the structuralist linguistics movement, of
Skinnerian psychology, and of the audiolingual method a combination that gave rise to the notion
that linguistic and psychological theory could easily be translated into practice-early applied linguistics
was dominantly associated with language teaching.
For Howatt (1984: 265, in Davies and Elder, 2006: 1-15), applied linguistics originates with L. Bloomfield and C.
Fries and language teaching programmes after WW2. In Europe La Association Internationale de Linguistique
Applique (AILA) was founded in the 60's under the auspices of the Council of Europe, whose aims in this
respect were promoting cultural cooperation among European countries and boost language learning. The year
1967 saw the birth of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL). Several universities in the UK created
departments of applied linguistics, the University of Edinburgh being the first of them in 1957. On the other side
of the Atlantic, the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) was founded in 1977. It is described as
a professional organization of scholars who are interested in and actively contribute to the multi-disciplinary
field of applied linguistics. (Vid. [http://www.aaal.org/) The magazine Language Learning created by C. Fries
and R. Lado in Michigan University in 1984 had at first a clear bias towards linguistics applied but its orientation
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had changed in the course of a few years to eventually adopt a definitive applied linguistics approach, dropping
the then redundant reference to it in the magazine title.

Defining Applied Linguistics

Defining applied linguistics in Davies and Elders words (2006: 5) is a problematic task, but not less so than

defining linguistics itself. They turn to Kaplan and Grabe (2000: 5-6, in Davies and Elder, op.cit., p.5) for
clarification on the object of study of linguistics and the definition of applied linguistics. As these authors put it:
the term applied linguistics raises fundamental difficulties if for no other reason than that it is difficult to

decide on what counts as linguistics. Given these difficulties within linguistics proper, it is perhaps unfair to
expect clean solutions and clear delimitations for defining applied linguistics . Applied linguistics is simply not
in the business of developing new theories, its concern is with new data (Davies & Elder, 2006: 4).
It is commonly assumed that the main object of study of applied linguistics is language teaching and its

methodology, an idea which has been often favoured by specialists on the matter. One of them is Pit Corder
(1973: 7) who wrote in the Introduction to his book Introducing Applied Linguistics:
My purpose in writing this book has been to show the relevance of those studies which are broadly
called linguistic to a number of practical tasks connected with language teaching. There will certainly
be some readers who, while not disputing the relevance of linguistic studies to language teaching, will
nevertheless criticize my implied restriction of the term applied linguistics to this field of activity, on
the grounds that there are practical tasks other than language teaching to which a knowledge of
linguistics is relevant. I do not disagree with them in principle, but claim nevertheless that, because of
the greater public interest in language teaching and the considerable official support there has been in
recent years for research and teaching in the application of linguistics to language teaching, this term
has effectively come to be restricted in this way in common usage.
Corder (1973: 7) in the following quotation seems to try to gain sympathy towards the cause of applied
linguistics from those theoretical linguists reluctant to grant it the status of a fully acceptable academic
discipline; he says:
Although this book is intended primarily for practising language teachers and those preparing to
become language teachers, it is my hope that it may also be of interest not only to the general reader
but also to linguists who wish to know something of the way in which their investigations, methods
and discoveries may be put to use by one group of professionals for whom language plays a central
part in their activities. I am enough of a purist to believe that applied linguistics presupposes
linguistics; that one cannot apply what one does not possess.
Corder (ib.), nevertheless, does not hesitate to recognize the debt that applied linguistics has to fields such as
theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics which can be helpful to solve (can make to the

solution of) some of the problems which arise in the course of planning, organizing and carrying out a languageteaching programme. He goes further to widen the focus of attention of applied linguistics:
It would be a mistake to associate applied linguistics exclusively with language teaching. There are
other people who are engaged in practical activities which involve language in a central role for whom
a knowledge of its nature could be of use in dealing with problems which arise in their work: the
speech therapist, the literary critic, the communications engineer, for example. We do not uniquely
associate applied linguistics with any single one of these activities. Whilst applied linguistics and
language teaching may be closely associated, they are not one and the same activity.
This is how Corder (ib.) describes the nature of applied linguistics:
The application of linguistic knowledge to some object or applied linguistics, as its name implies is
an activity. It is not a theoretical study. It makes use of the findings of theoretical studies. The applied
linguist is a consumer, or user, not a producer, of theories. If we use the term theory as it is used in
science, then there is no such thing as a theory of language teaching or a theory of speech therapy
or a theory of literary criticism. Language teaching is also an activity, but teaching languages is not
the same activity as applied linguistics. However, if we interpret language teaching in the very
broadest sense, to include all the planning and decision-making which takes place outside the

classroom, then there may be an element of applied linguistics in all language teaching. Just as there
may be an element of applied linguistics in all speech therapy or all literary criticism.
David Crystal (1997: 418), in the section The Domain of Linguistics in his Encyclopaedia of Language, comments
on the decade-long increasing interest of scholars and researchers in the various fields of linguistics, what
eventually led in the sixties to its establishment as a university discipline with several branches. According to
Crystal, the different projections of this subject are determined by the variety of focus and interests of linguists,
and adds:
Linguistics shares with other sciences a concern to be objective, systematic, consistent, and explicit in
its account of language. Like other sciences, it aims to collect data, test hypotheses, devise models,
and construct theories. Its subject matter, however, is unique: at one extreme, it overlaps with such
hard sciences as physics and anatomy; at the other, it involves such traditional arts subjects as
philosophy and literary criticism. The field of linguistics includes both science and the humanities, and
offers a breadth of coverage that, for many aspiring students of the subject, is the primary source of
its appeal.
There are two sides to linguistics: a theoretical and an applied one. The applied side comprises an ample
catalogue of multidisciplinary fields in which _in Crystals words_ applied linguistics is to be included along with

anthropological linguistics, biological linguistics, clinical linguistics, computational linguistics, educational

linguistics, ethnolinguistics, geographical linguistics, mathematical linguistics, neurolinguistics, philosophical
linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, statistical linguistics, theolinguistics.

Crystal defines applied linguistics in these terms:

The application on linguistic theories, methods, and findings to the elucidation of language problems
that have arisen in other domains. The term is especially used with reference to the field of foreign
language learning and teaching ..., but it applies equally to several other fields, such as stylistics ...,
lexicography ..., translation ..., and language planning ..., as well as to the clinical and educational
fields below.
It seems that another concern of applied linguistics is with the investigation and the solution of real-world
problems, a constant in most definitions as well as in the statement of its aims. Davies and Elder (2006, pp. 45) question the significance of the concept real world in relation to language teaching. They wonder how real
the language taught in a classroom setting can be as language reduced to samples in a syllabus does not
represent language in the real world, which characterizes for being spontaneous and non-idealized. They say
that the distinction between real and non-real is a flaky one.

Applied Linguistics and Linguistics Applied

Following Davies & Elder (2006: 1-15), we can view the range of application of applied linguistics from two
different angles:
The social perspective (concerning language teaching methodology, speech therapy, translation and
interpreting studies, writing valid language tests, language planning, setting and evaluating bilingual
programmes, etc.).
The linguistic or academic perspective, often called L-A (Linguistics-Applied) or, more accurately
perhaps, application of linguistics.
As the above mentioned authors point out, linguistics has been much under the influence of the strict formalism
of Chomskyan linguistics for some time, but as it has detached from that formalism it has returned to its
previous social perspective, which _as Davies and Elder say_ is Bible translation, developing writing systems,
dictionary making and similar things. Although both traditions seem to be somehow convergent, in fact this is
not entirely so. It is generally accepted that applied linguistics refers to the teaching of languages in its widest
sense, not only methodology, that is, speech therapy, translation and interpretation studies, and language
planning, for instance.
Applied linguistics and linguistics applied represent two different modes of intervention, in Widdowsons
words (2000: 3-25). The distinction between both modes arises some interesting issues in connection with the
range of scope of linguistics. Following Davies and Elder (2006: 9-10) who quote Widdowson on the topic, we
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find that linguistics applied can be described as a mode of intervention which favours the application of
concepts and terms deriving from linguistic enquiry to the solution of language problems, while applied
linguistics is an approach characterized by the mediation of the applied linguist who resorts to linguistics as well
as to the other related disciplinary sources for the solution of linguistic problems. Ellis (1990) distinguishes two
contrasting research approaches, the research-then-theory, an essentially inductive approach associated with
applied linguistics, and the theory-then-research mode, the mainstream classic tradition, essentially deductive
and associated with linguistics. The applied linguistics and linguistics applied traditions came in perfect
marriage in the work of linguists like Henry Sweet, J.
R. Firth, Pit Corder or Peter Strevens. Davies and Elder (2006: 10) conclude:
The real push to a coherent conception of the activity, an applied linguistics view, came from Corder
who, while insisting on the centrality of linguistics, accepted the need for other inputs. It came even
more strongly from Peter Strevens who was unashamedly eclectic in what he saw as a growing
discipline.

Concluding remarks
If we look at the history of linguistics in the 20th century, the debate on the study of language has often been
acrimonious and far from objective, but lately, there appears to be a growing consensus that the study of
language (both in its theoretical and applied dimensions) demands the combined efforts of linguists belonging to
both perspectives. As Mairal and Gil (2006:44) affirm, there have been many manifestations of this new
tendency to join forces. For example, in our opinion, the marked difference between formalist and functionalist
models does not necessarily entail their incompatibility. On the contrary, the progressive approximation of these
two approaches signifies the achievement of a wider, more integrated perspective, as well as the development
of a new sensitivity that will allow us to value and benefit from all advances in the understanding of language
from whatever theoretical framework.
The following quotation from Jackendoff (2002, xiii) illustrates the methodological attitude that should
predominate in linguistic research:

We cannot afford the strategy that regrettably seems endemic in the cognitive sciences: one discovers
a new tool, decides it is the only tool needed, and, in an act of academic (and funding) territoriality,
loudly proclaims the superiority of this new tool over all others. My own attitude is that we are in this
together. It is going to take us lots of tools to understand language. We should try to appreciate
exactly what each of the tools we have is good for, [and to recognize when new and as yet
undiscovered tools are necessary.]
This is not to advocate a warm fuzzy embrace of every new approach that appears on the scene.
Rather, what is called for is an open-mindedness to insights from whatever quarter, a willingness to
recognize tensions among apparently competing insights, and a joint commitment to fight fair in the
interests of deeper understanding. To my mind, thats what the game of science is about.

REFERENCES:
Corder, P. 1973. Introducing Applied Linguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Crystal, D. 1997. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Davies, A. & Elder, C. 2006. The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Ellis, R. 1990. A response to Gregg. Applied Linguistics, 11(4), 384-91.
Howatt, A. P. R. 1984. A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kaplan, R. B. 2002. The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
Kaplan, R. B. & Grabe, W. 2000. Applied linguistics and the Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics. In Grabe, W. (ed.), Applied Linguistics as an emerging discipline. Annual Review of
Applied Linguistics, 20, 3-17.
Jackendoff, R. 2002. Foundations of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mairal, R. and J. Gil (eds). 2006. Linguistic Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Widdowson, H. 2000. On the limitations of linguistics applied. Applied Linguistics, 21(1), 3-25.
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AAAL
Founded in 1977, the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) is a professional organization of
scholars who are interested in and actively contribute to the multi-disciplinary field of applied linguistics.
AAAL members promote principled approaches to language-related concerns, including language education,
acquisition and loss, bilingualism, discourse analysis, literacy, rhetoric and stylistics, language for special
purposes, psycholinguistics, second and foreign language pedagogy, language assessment, and language policy
and planning.
http://www.aaal.org/
BAAL
BAAL is a professional association based in the UK, which provides a forum for people interested in language
and the applications of linguistics.
http://www.baal.org.uk/
AILA
It is the Association Internationale de Linguistique Aplique. This association, which hosts over
5000 members belonging to 43 national associations, was born in France in 1964.
For further information you can access to the webpage through the following two links:
http://www.aesla.uji.es/AILA
http://www.aila.info/#a2008-12

Web links

1. European Developments in Applied Linguistics:

<http://www.eric.ed.gov/sitemap/html_0900000b801286a0.html>
Article by Theo van Els.
2. Glossary of Applied Linguistics
<http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/glos-spel.html#a>
3. Centre for Applied Linguistics (CAL) <http://www.cal.org/>
Their general objective as declared in their web site is that of improving communication through better
understanding of language and culture by,
Promoting and improving the teaching and learning of languages
Identifying and solving problems related to language and culture
Serving as a resource for information about language and culture
Conducting research on issues related to language and culture