1+-+Applied+Linguistics

Applied Linguistics: An Emerging Discipline for the Twenty-First Century William Grabe The history of applied linguistics starts in 1948 with the first publication of Language Learning journal: A journal of Applied Linguistics. The term “Applied Linguistics” was used to reflect the thoughts of structural and functional linguists upon solving the problems of Second Language Teaching and First Language literacy. The focus of Applied Linguistics became learning rather than teaching. The connection between linguistics and real-world problems had four major consequences.
 * The importance of analyses and various solutions for different local contexts
 * The need to view the language as functional and discourse based
 * There is no possibility of applying all the tools to address the real-world problems
 * The need to apply various tools to face different language problems

This chapter is about the trends and perspectives in the 1990s. Applied linguistics now gives ground for research to put emphasis on language teaching/learning, patterns of teacher-student interaction, task/content- based learning, “focus on forms” for language learning. Research in language learning is now more concentrated on information processing. The latter brought to the new directions in language teacher development due to seven major emphases:
 * 1)  AL must support teacher through their arbitration with all aspects of language.
 * 2) The importance/ concentration on critical studies, such as critical awareness, critical discourse analysis, pedagogy, student’s rights and ethics in language assessment.
 * 3)  Language use in academic disciplinary and certified settings.
 * 4)  Analysis of language in real life situations and distinctions in register and genre.
 * 5)  Implementation of multilingualism and bilingualism at different levels (regional and nationa),and situations.
 * 6)  The change in discussions of language testing and assessment.
 * 7)  AL should hold a connection between research and practice.

Defining Applied Linguistics There are different definitions of applied linguistics, for instance R.Kaplan defines applied linguistics as a “practice-driven discipline”. It has its own base and from there on different branches emerge. Applied linguistics includes subfields such as pedagogy, translation, lexicography, etc. Some scholars think that it is an “interdisciplinary” field. Its connection to measurement, computer programming, sociology, anthropology and literature is obvious. The basic problem in applied linguistics is to identify the boundary line between the base and the branches.