This document discusses key concepts in applied linguistics including definitions of applied linguistics, areas of applied linguistics study, issues in applied linguistics, the relationship between applied linguistics and language education, and debates around the native speaker concept. It provides an overview of applied linguistics as using linguistic knowledge to solve real-world language problems, highlights 16 topic areas in applied linguistics, and examines theoretical and methodological considerations in the field.

1. BIL6024 ISSUES IN APPLIED
LINGUISTICS
Week 2

2. What is applied linguistics?
• Read the article by Vivan Cook, and answer the following questions:
• (i). What is the language teaching view of applied linguistics?
• (ii). How important are other disciplines (beside linguistics) in applied
linguistics?
• (iii). What does this statement “…applied linguistics is applying linguistics
to actual data…” means? Explain.
• (iv). What is the relationship between applied linguistics and second
language acquisition (SLA)?
• (v). What does Vivian Cook mean when she says that “…applied linguistics
then means many things to many people…?”

3. What is Applied Linguistics?
• Applied linguistics is using what we know
about language, how it is learned and how it is
used, in order to achieve some purpose or
solve some problems in the real world, and
those purposes are many and varied (Schmitt
& Celce-Murcia, 2002).

4. • According to Wilkins (1999:7)(cited in Schmitt &
Celce-Murcia, 2002):
• “In a broad sense, applied linguistics is concerned
with increasing understanding of the role of
language in human affairs and thereby with
providing the knowledge necessary for those who
are responsible for taking language-related
decisions whether the need for these arises in the
classroom, the workplace, the law court, or the
laboratory.”

5. Areas of Applied Linguistics
16 topic areas based on American Association of
Applied Linguistics (AAAL) 2010 conference:
* analysis of discourse and interaction
* assessment and evaluation
* bilingual, immersion, heritage and language
minority education
* language and ideology
* language and learner characteristics
* language and technology

6. * language cognition and brain research
* language, culture, socialization and pragmatics
* language maintenance and revitalization
* language planning and policy
* reading, writing and literacy
* second and foreign language pedagogy
* second language acquisition, language
acquisition and attrition
* sociolinguistics
* text analysis (written discourse)
* translation and interpretation

7. ISSUES IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS
• McCarthy (2001)
• (1). Should applied linguists be theoretical?
• (2). What is an applied linguist’s theoretical
stance with regard to a problem or set of
problems?
• (3). Can linguistics offer an approach or a
solution to a problem at hand?

8. (4). If so, which branch of linguistics study?
(5). And, by what method?
(6). If there is conflicting information to be
had from the findings of linguists, how does
one best evaluate which approach is likely to
be the most useful?
(7). Can the non-linguist take on such a task,
or is this a job for highly trained specialists?

9. Being theoretical
McCarthy (2001) states that being theoretical is a
desirable thing in applied linguistics.
He cited Widdowson (1984) who viewed that:
“applied linguistics must formulate concepts and
theories in the light of the phenomena it is trying
to account for …. Applied linguistics must
certainly account for, and be accountable to, the
contexts in which they work and the problems
with which they engage.”

10. Theoretical stance
• “They must not shy away from stating the
beliefs, claims and attitudes that inform their
position on any given applied linguistic
activity, whether it be solving a language-
teaching problem or proposing a socio-
political language-planning solution that
might have wide humanitarian implications.
This is one’s theoretical stance.” (Widdowson,
1984)

11. • Thus, encountering problems and adopting a
convincing stance towards them is what
defines applied linguistics as a discipline
(McCarthy, 2001).

12. 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)

13. PROBLEM SOLVING
• Applied linguistics try to offer solutions to
‘real-world problems in which language is a
central issue’ (Brumfit, 1991:46)(cited in
McCarthy, 2001)

14. Approaching Problems in an Applied
Linguistic Way
• (1). Identifying and defining problems.
• (2). Contextualizing those problems within
linguistic study and developing a theoretical
stance.
• (3). Harnessing appropriate resources for the
exploration of possible solutions.
• (4). Evaluating the proposed solutions.
• (Refer to the book by McCarthy (2001), pages
7-13)

15. • One of the first and most important things for
the teacher who would be an applied linguist
is to have a good working knowledge of how
linguistics is sub-divided and how the
linguistics community makes its decision as to
what to include in what (McCarthy, 2001).

16. • Real-world problems are best not regarded as
divorced from the world outside of the
classroom, from the wider socio-cultural and
political contexts in which language learning
takes place. As with all problem-solving
activities, the solutions may not come easily
or immediately (McCarthy, 2001).

17. The Native Speaker in Applied
Linguistics
The concept of native speaker occupies an
important position in applied linguistics.
On the one hand, it is widely used as a
benchmark for knowledge of a language (and
as such attracts opposition because it
excludes those who are not native speakers),
and as a criterion for employment.
On the other hand, a definition of the native
speaker is elusive (Davies, 2004).

18. Who is a native speaker?
Davies (2004)
(i). The native speaker acquires the L1 of which
he/she is a native speaker in childhood.
(ii). The native speaker has intuitions (in terms of
acceptability and productiveness) about his/her
idiolectal grammar.
(iii). The native speaker has intuitions about
those features of the standard language
grammar which are distinct from his/her
idiolectal grammar.

19. (iv). The native speaker has a unique capacity
to produce fluent spontaneous discourse,
which exhibits pauses mainly at clause
boundaries (the “one clause at a time”
facility) and which is facilitated by a huge
memory stock of complete lexical items. In
both production and comprehension, the
native speaker exhibits a wide range of
communicative competence (Pawley &
Snyder, 1983), cited in Davies (2004).

20. • (v). The native speaker has a unique capacity
to write creatively (and this includes literature
at all levels from jokes to epics, metaphor to
novels).
• (vi). The native speaker has a unique capacity
to interpret and translate into the L1 of which
he/she is a native speaker. Disagreements
about the deployment of an individual’s
capacity are likely to stem from a dispute
about the standard or (standard) language.

21. Native speaker or native speaker-
like?
• To what extent can the L2 learner become a
target language native speaker?
• (i). The second language learner does not
acquire the target language in early childhood.
If he/she does, then he/she is a native speaker
of both L1 and the target language (TL), or
he/she is a bilingual native speaker (Davies,
2004).

22. • (ii). However, with sufficient contact and
practice, it is possible for the L2 learner to
gain access to intuitions about his/her own
idiolectal grammar of the target language
(Davies, 2004).

23. • (iii). With sufficient contact and practice, the
L2 learner can also gain access to the standard
grammar of the target language (Davies,
2004).
(In many formal learning situations it is
through exposure to a target language
standard grammar that the target language
idiolectal grammar would emerge.)

24. • (iv). In practice, it is difficult (but not
impossible) for the non-native speaker to gain
the discourse and pragmatic control of a
native speaker (Davies, 2004).

25. (v). With practice, it is possible for an L2
learner to become an accepted creative artist
(writer, performer, etc.) in the target language
(Davies, 2004).
(However, problems may arise from the L1
community’s acceptability of the L2 learner’s
creative works and of him/her writing not in
the standard target language but in a non-
codified (standard) language.)

26. Native speaker (NS) vs. Non-native
speaker (NNS)
• It is now difficult to distinguish between
native speakers and non-native speakers since
there are many views of what being a native
speaker means, which include:
• (i). Native speaker by birth (by early childhood
exposure)
• (ii).Native speaker by virtue of being a native
user.

27. • (iii). Native speaker (or native speaker-like) by
being an exceptional learner.
• (iv). Native speaker through education in the
target language medium.
• (v). Native speaker through long residence in
the adopted country.
• Hyltenstam & Abrhamsson (2000), cited in
Davies (2004).

28. • Disputes and differences of opinion about the
native speaker arise because the concept is
interpreted differently. That is why it has been
referred to as both a myth and reality (Davies,
2004).

29. Question
• Should L2 learners be ‘native-like’ in the target
language?

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.