"Critical Comments on Different Views of the Definitions of Applied Linguistics"

 

Applied linguistics is a field of study that looks at how linguistics can help understand real-life problems in areas such as psychology, sociology, and education. It can be compared with theoretical linguistics, which looks at areas such as morphology, phonology, and lexis. Areas of applied linguistics of interest to teachers of languages include language acquisition, corpus studies, and sociolinguistics.

Applied linguistics is a branch of linguistics where the primary concern is the application of linguistic theories, methods, and findings to the elucidation of language problems that have arisen in other areas of experience. The most well-developed branch of applied linguistics is the teaching and learning of foreign languages, and sometimes the term is used as if this were the only field involved.

Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, communication research, anthropology, and sociology (Wikipedia).

According to Kaplan and Widdowson, Applied Linguistics is a mediation between theory and practice (1992), while Rampton thought that it is understood as an open field (1997).

For Hudson, it is a synthesis of research from a variety of disciplines, including linguistics (1999).

Applied linguistics opens up a whole new array of questions and concerns, such as issues of identity, sexuality, access, ethics, disparity, difference, desire, or the reproduction (Pennycook 2004: 803–4).

In Vivian Cook's opinion, Applied Linguistics means many things to many people (2006).

We can see that the problem is that the applied linguists themselves don't have much clearer ideas about what the subject consists of. They argue over whether it necessarily has anything to do with language teaching or with linguistics and whether it includes the actual description of language.

To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Once, applied linguistics seemed boundless, including the study of first language acquisition and computational linguistics.

Applied linguistics then means many things to many people. Discovering what a book or a course in applied linguistics is about involves reading the small print to discover its orientation.

For me, applied linguistics is the science of all sciences, and it is up-to-date all the time.

Applied linguistics has many functions, such as: the theory and practice of language learning and teaching, language in education, discourse analysis, the development of corpora for computational treatment, anthropological approaches to language, and the development of language policies.

 

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