应用语言学

What is applied linguistics?

Defining linguistics has always been difficult. Applied linguistics is not only about applying linguistics theories to the real world, but it is also closely related to many other disciplines. Applied linguistics has its own hypothesis, principles, rules, and method in practical activities.

In Phil Durrant’s opinion, applied linguistics is any attempt to work with language in critical and reflect way, with some ultimate practical goal in mind.

In Wini Davies’s opinion, applied linguistics is perceived almost exclusively as research into the teaching and learning of the foreign-language, often resulting in the production of teaching materials.

As I see it, applied linguistics is essential in real life, it is a mediator between real world and the theories. We use knowledge to solve practical language-related problems. Applied linguistics is an application of linguistics knowledge to solving practical problem of other scientific fields, such as language teaching and learning, speech pathology, lexicography, translation, contrastive linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics and several other areas. In school teaching, applied linguistics means the scientific study of the principles and practices of second and foreign language teaching and learning.

Applied linguistics means several academic disciplines focusing on

how language is acquired and used in the modern world. It is a discipline which explores relations between theory and practice, and people use the relationship to solve problems. It is a very broad field concerned with promoting our understanding of the role language plays in human life, it uses insights gained from theory-practice interface for solving problems.

Applied linguistics has been most commonly used to cover all aspects of the academic study of language teaching and learning in the past time, but now we know that it can be widely used in many aspects.