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Introduction, History And Subfields of Applied Linguistic

1.               Introduction

Many people try to define or describe what applied linguistic is,below are some of them opinies :

a.       AL is the theoretical and empirical investigation of real world problems in which language is central issue. (Brumfit)

b.      The focus of AL is on trying to resolve language based problems  that people encounter in the real world.(Grabe)

c.       AL uses what we know about (a) language (b) how it is learned and (c) how it is used in order to achieve some purpose or solve some problems in the real world.(Schmitt and celce murcia)

d.      AL is , in our view, a coherent activity which theories through speculative and empirical investigations real world problems in which language is central issue. (Davis and Elder)

Davis and Elder  (2006) commented on widdoeson’s distinction between Linguistic  Applied (LA) and Applied Linguistic (AL) thus ::

“ the differences between these modes of intervention is that in the case of inguistic applied, the assumption  is that the problem can be reformulated by the direct and unilateral application of concepts and terms deriving from linguistic enquiry itself.   That is to say, language problems are amenable to linguistic solutions. In the case of applied linguistic , intervention is crucially a matter of mediation..applied linguistics..has to relate and reconcile different representation of reality, including that of linguistics without excluding others, (widdowson,2000,p.5)

2.               History of Applied Linguistic

1942 è Bloomfield’s outline guide for the practical study of foreign language

1948 è conference was organised by Charles C.Fries at university Michigan,America

1956 è a school of applied linguistic was estabilished by J.C Cartford at university Edinburgh, Britain

1959 èthe center for applied linguistic was set up in Washington DC under Charles Ferguson

1964 è national association of applied linguistic came togother , it is  Association International de la Linguistique  Aplique (AILA)

1967 è  the British Association of Applied Linguistic (BAAL) was formally

2001 è the symposium held at the American Association of Applied Linguistic (AAAL) in St. Louis.

3.      Subfields of Applied Linguistic

Below are the commonly regarded subfields of applied linguistic as note Grabe (2002)

a.       Second language acquisition (ASL)

b.      Language Assesment and Testing

c.       Language policy and planning

d.      Lexicography

e.       Multilinguaism

f.        Corpus linguistic : psycholinguidtic, education, sociolinguistic,English studies, discourse study

              Douglas L.Ride out in his comment on yhe book applied linguistics by Cook (2003) that in the late 1950s,AL was principally concerned with language teaching especially second / foreign language teaching.