The term 'applied linguistics' refers to a broad range of activities which involve solving some language-related problem or addressing some language-related concern. It appears as though applied linguistics, at least in North America, was first officially recognized as an independent course at the University of Michigan in 1946.
Today the governing board of AILA describes applied linguistics 'as a means to help solve specific problems in society…applied linguistics focuses on the numerous and complex areas in society in which language plays a role.' * There appears to be consensus that the goal is to apply the findings and the techniques from research in linguistics and related disciplines to solve practical problems. In addition to foreign language teaching and machine translation, a partial sampling of issues considered central to the field of applied linguistics today includes topics such as language for special purposes (e.g. language and communication problems related to aviation, language disorders, law, medicine, science), language policy and planning, and language and literacy issues.
For example, following the adoption of English as the working language for all international flight communication by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), some applied linguists concerned themselves with understanding the kinds of linguistic problems that occur when pilots or flight engineers from varying backgrounds communicate using a nonnative language and how to better train them to communicate in English more effectively.
History
The tradition of applied linguistics established itself in part as a response to the narrowing of focus in linguistics with the advent in the late 1950s of generative linguistics, and has always maintained a socially-accountable role, demonstrated by its central interest in language problems.[1]
Although the field of applied linguistics started from Europe and the United States, the field rapidly flourished in the international context.
Applied linguistics first concerned itself with principles and practices on the basis of linguistics. In the early days, applied linguistics was thought as “linguistics-applied” at least from the outside of the field. In the 1960s, however, applied linguistics was expanded to include language assessment, language policy, and second language acquisition. As early as the 1970s, applied linguistics became a problem-driven field rather than theoretical linguistics, including the solution of language-related problems in the real world. By the 1990s, applied linguistics had broadened including critical studies and multilingualism. Research in applied linguistics was shifted to "the theoretical and empirical investigation of real world problems in which language is a central issue."[2]
In the United States, applied linguistics also began narrowly as the application of insights from structural linguistics—first to the teaching of English in schools and subsequently to second and foreign language teaching. The linguistics applied approach to language teaching was promulgated most strenuously by Leonard Bloomfield, who developed the foundation for the Army Specialized Training Program, and by Charles C. Fries, who established the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Michigan in 1941. In 1946, Applied linguistics became a recognized field of studies in the aforementioned university.[3] In 1948, the Research Club at Michigan established Language Learning: A Journal of Applied Linguistics, the first journal to bear the term applied linguistics. In the late 1960s, applied linguistics began to establish its own identity as an interdisciplinary field of linguistics concerned with real-world language issues. The new identity was solidified by the creation of the American Association for Applied Linguistics in 1977.[4]
References Edit
^ Alan Davies & Catherine Elder.(Eds.). 2004. Handbook of Applied Linguistics. 1
^ Christopher Brumfit. How applied linguistics is the same as any other science, "International Journal of Applied Linguistics", 7(1), 86-94.
^ "Applied Linguistics | Linguistic Society of America". www.linguisticsociety.org. Retrieved 2017-08-28.
^ Margie Berns and Paul Kei Matsuda. 2006. Applied linguistics: Overview and history. In K. Brown (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (2nd ed.), 398-401.
