APPLIED LINGUISTICS (AL)

APPLIED LINGUISTICS (AL)

Definitions:

The study of second and foreign language learning and teaching

The study of language and linguistics in relation to practical problems: lexicography; translation; speech pathology/therapy; stylistics; language planning; communication studies; discourse analysis studies; intercultural communication studies

Applied linguistics uses terms from sociology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, in order to develop its own theoretical modals of language use which are transferred to the domains mentioned above.

Applied refers to the application of linguistic theories in a range of human, cultural and social context of which language learning and teaching was the 1^st one.

AL is seen as a social science, while theoretical linguistics claims to be a science in the same sense in which physics is a science, a natural science.

While AL attempts to study language as actual practice in real world context, theoretical linguistics rests on a fundamental asocial view of language. They form a dichotomy listed as:

-language as form vs. language as function

-language as mental phenomenon vs. language as a social phenomenon

-homogeneity of language vs. heterogeneity of language

-language vs. parole

-competence vs. performance

AL is using what we know about a language, how it is learned and how it is used in order to achieve some purpose or solve some problem in the real world. The information provided by AL is relevant to a context like a classroom, the work place, the law court or the laboratory.

Areas of AL (47):

-language and its acquisitions

-language and assessement

-language and the brain

-language and cognition

-language and culture

-language and ideology

-language and the media

-language and translation

-language and policy

The following subdisciplines are also important for AL:

-deaf education

-first language acquisition

-literacy

-authorship identification (grafologie)

-forensic linguistics (criminalistica)

Eg: Authorship identification uses a statistical analysis of various linguistic features in anonymous texts and in disputed texts and it compares the result with a similar analysis from texts whose authors are known when a match is made, this gives strong indication as to the author.

AL is interested in cases where language goes wrong and researchers study the speech of autistic, schizophrenic, aphasic speakers in the belief that we can better understand how the brain functions when we analyze what happens when a speakers language system breaks down or doesnt function properly.

THE COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

It was 1^st formulated by HYMES in 1972; it argued that linguistic competence is more than forming correct sentences. One must know when to use these sentences, to whom address them and where to use them.

HALLIDAY: the creator of the systemic functional grammar which offered an alternative to Chomskys grammar, namely when Chomsky viewed language internal to a speaker, Halliday says that language is a means of functioning in society.

He identifies 3 types of functions:

-ideational (experience, factual information)

-interpersonal (maintaining relations with the others)

-textual (the organization of texts: summerizing, clarifying etc)

They promoted a very dynamic view on language, emphasizing the communicative and applicative nature. Practically, in the 70s, the Council of Europe started a project attempting to create a European language teaching system. This project was based on the analysis of learners needs and it included relevant concepts (notions) and uses of language (functions). In 1998, the categories of functions listed were:

-imparting and seeking factual information

eg: asking the time of a flight

asking for directions

-socializing

Eg: greeting, politeness strategy, small talk introducing

The material used for this project was very influential and the textbooks produced a type of syllabus called notional functional syllabus.

Steven Krashen came up with a theory of acquisition in 1992. He focused on linguistic input: the language to which the students were exposed.

The Monitor Theory argues that a 2^nd language is mainly acquired unconsciously through exposure to this input. It explicitly contradicted the traditional idea that language is learned in schools through explicit exercises. He claimed that language teaching should have a strong emphasis on meaning, the role of the emotional state of the students which can affect acquisition: the affective filter.

The pedagogical implications of Krashens theories were that classrooms should supply a rich source of exposure that was very meaningful and understandable for the students ~ comprehensible input. It included also some elements a bit beyond their common level → motherese

The methodologies which developed from all these factors emphasised the use of language for meaningful communication: communicative language-teaching (CLT). The focus was on the message and fluency rather than on accuracy.

Taken further, students could be taught some non-language related subjects such as history, politics in the L2. The assumption was that the learners will acquire L2 by using it by learning about something else. There was a trend for emmersion programs where students attended primary/secondary schools which taught all subjects in L2.

Results from this kind of emmersion programs showed that learners in such programs became more fluent in L2 without explicit instructions and were excellent in receptive skills. However these learners continued to commit errors after many years of instruction.

The communicative aspect helped learners to become fluent but could not ensure a good level of accuracy therefore a certain amount of explicit instruction is still necessary. Currently, in methodology, there is a focus on form in the sense that methodologists try to inject well thought pieces of information about grammar back into the language lessons without giving up the positive results of the communicative approach.

Of all, the technology, the greater impact was PCs. Sophisticated language programs are available to everybody. There were consequences: computer assisted language learning (CALL) learners learning in their own rhythm. It facilitated the incorporation of audio-visual applications and current programs became interactive adapting the input and the tasks to each individuals progress. Today, CALL is one of the more dynamic areas in AL.

Computing technology, also made possible to analyze huge databases of languages, called corpora. This area of linguistics is called corpus linguistics. The most important revelation from corpus linguistics is the enormous amount of lexical pattering which exists in language. In fact it is so great that some scholars have suggested that this lexical pattering is more important than grammar in the organization of language.

Evidence from corpora as spoken discourse has proved difference between spoken and written discourse and also corpora are again the source of numerous, authentic examples that can be used in grammar instead of invented examples. Corpora had also evidenced the existence of different registers, the register of fiction/ the register of academic prose.

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

(Curs 2)

Definition: one of the most vast areas of AL

The understanding of discourse comes from a number of academic disciplines that are quite different from one another. For example, pragmatics, the philosophy of language, sociolinguistics; defining discourse is a bit difficult.

1. Discourse is language about the level of the sentence. This is the formalist approach which looks at constituents in a stretch of language that have certain relationships with one another and which occur in a number o arrangements. This approach resembles analysis of the level of phonology, morphology etc. This is also called SENTENCE LINGUISTICS.

2. Discourse analysis is a discipline, an umbrella term for 2 main directions for analysis: analysing the language as an end in itself: structure, the process of describing how these complex structures in a social environment

Eg: How does turn taking work in conversation?

This kind of approach studies talk because analysts want to know about talk = discourse as an end in itself.

Discourse as a process, as a means to some other end. Analysts analyze talk not for talks sake but in order to find out about something else in the talk.

Eg: talk can serve as a piece of evidence about any aspect of human life: sociologists, researchers in education, in cultural/ media studies etc who are not linguists but who adopt these methods that produce data that consists of language called DISCOURSE DATA.

Eg of methods: -interview (language analysis for the topic)

-the focus group

The focus group: several people meet and are supposed to debate a topic; a group moderator encourages them to talk; all their discussion is recorded, transcribed, it becomes a transcript on a page, it is analysed (searching solutions to the problems raised).

Very often in these transcripts there are found brand new ideas which sometimes arent related to the proposed topic. The data used is different → Characteristics of data

Discourse as an end:

-invented examples

-isolated sentences, without context, very correct

Discourse as a process:

-any stretch of language that is perceived as a whole, that has a context, that has a meaning and which is not invented but observed in reality

1. John considers reality the analyst a lunatic.

2. Which of you, people, is the fish?

3. I wish someone had told me hes a vegetarian; I could have made an omelette.

4. Chicken and vegetables.notmedium.errice anderwhats been debudget?

1. isolated sentence, correct, there is no context (sentence linguistics)

2. it seems to be observed, collected in some way, it is not invented

3. sentence linguistics (grammatically correct)

4. Sentence discourse (talk discourse, the presence of dots, of er the context might be guessed)

I. This box contains 100 large paper clips. Applied linguistics is therefore not the same as linguistics. Just send 12 guinea bottles.

II. Playback. Raymond Chandler. Penguin Books. To my mother, without whom this book could never have been written one. The voice on the telephone seems to be sharp, but I didnt hear too well what is said.→the beginning of a novel (sentence linguistics), title, author, publisher, dedication, chapter, the novel (beginning properly)

I its not a text; its a collections of sentences unrelated

II its a coherent text because the sentences are related and we can understand it as a unified whole. The links between the sentences are not in the text but in our minds; what help us understand this stretch of text as a coherent one is out background knowledge.

Text II is not typical; in typical texts, the links between sentences are on the page. These formal links bind sentences together, making them to become texts.

Eg: The baby cried.

The mommy picked it up.

*anaphoric function