Universidade Estadual do Piau UESPI Curso: Especializao em Lngua Inglesa - 2012/1 Disciplina: Lingustica Aplicada Professora: Maria Eldelita

a Franco Holanda

Summary of Applied Linguistics

By: Classius Clay da Silva Maciel

Teresina Piau, 2012

Applied Linguistics
2.1 Introduction The learning and teaching of foreign languages, is by many referred to as applied linguistics, although as a matter of fact it is only one of many sub-areas of applied linguistics. Some elucidation of why this is so seems appropriate at this point; this primarily terminological elucidation will also serve to illustrate some typical aspects of scientific endeavour within the field. 2.2 Analysis of the term Many researchers have written at length on what the term applied linguistics means. This fact alone could be taken to demonstrate that a purely semantic definition of the field will fail; if the field indeed were what the combination of the words applied linguistics means, then the terminological problem would have been solved a long time ago. 2.2.1 Applied In all applied sciences the aim is to achieve or help to achieve goals which are outside the actual realm of the sciences themselves. Applied linguistics is, therefore, not the same as linguistics; neither is it a subsection of linguistics. Applications of sciences can be divided into a number of types. Back (1970:20 ff.) distinguishes three types of applied sciences, for which he gives examples from the field of linguistics: (1) The methods and results from one branch of science are used to develop insights into another branch of science; among the examples from linguistics which Back (1970:27) cites are philology and stylistics. (2) The methods and results from a branch of science are used to solve practical social problems; FLT can be cited as an example. (3) The application itself; under this interpretation the teacher who teaches his classes is actually involved in applied linguistics. 2.2.2 Linguistics If one uses the term applied linguistics in connection with the study of learning and teaching foreign languages, one finds that not only the first part of the term needs to be defined, but also the second, since a literal interpretation of this second term can only lead to conclusion that theoretical linguistics is the only discipline at the basis of applied linguistics. Applied linguistics has, in the past, indeed sometimes based itself solely on findings from theoretical linguistics. The position then was, essentially, that in order to be able to teach a language all one needed to know was how the language in question is structured. An FLT method such as the grammar-translation method (see chapter 8) is a clear example of such a position. In later years, we find repeated warnings against dependence of FLT on developments within theoretical linguistics (see Johnson 1969:236, Bender 1979:7). Generally speaking, one can

say that the assumption of a unilateral dependence has been abandoned, although not as long ago as Khlwein (1979:157) would have us believe. Of course, there have been some researchers in the past who realized that theoretical linguistics alone would not suffice as a basis for FLT. 2.3 History of the term In this section, we wish to give a brief historical survey of the use of the term, and discuss some of the proposals which have been made over the years to replace the term by one better suited to the field. 2.3.1 The term applied linguistics Back (1970:34 ff.) gives some examples from the nineteenth and early twentieth century which indicate that applications of linguistics were thought of before the term applied linguistics came to be used. For it is a fairly recent term, and at first used specifically in connection with FLT, at least in Western Europe and the US. Apparently, it first came to be widely used in the US, some 20 or 30 years ago. Engels (1968:5) tell us that applied linguistics was recognized as a independent subject in the University of Michigan as early as 1946. It is, therefore, likely that the term originated there and then; it is certainly the case that its use was propagated from there. 2.3.2 Alternative term In order to avoid the objections that can be raised against narrowing down the use of the term applied linguistics to learning and teaching foreign languages, alternative terms have been suggested by some; others, in want of a decent alternative, prefer to speak simply of the scientific study of foreign language teaching, like Wilkins (1972:197). Dissatisfaction with the term applied linguistics for the study of FLT has led in the Federal Republic of Germany to a popular if somewhat lengthy term language teaching and learning research (Sprachlehr und lernforschung). 2.4 Other surveys of the field When we devote some space to the way in which other researchers have provided surveys of applied linguistics, then of course we do not mean surveys relating to the entire field that could be taken to constitute applied linguistics, nor to any random selection from it, such as Ebneter (1976) and Bouton (1978) respectively. Among the surveys which have restricted themselves to FLT, there is a further group of publications which should not be compared to this book, and those are guides containing practical suggestions which can be applied in classroom practice, such as Hunfeld and Schrder (1979) and Broughton et al. (1980). In chapter 1 we have already established ou position with respect to practical suggestions and advice to teachers.