Applied linguistics

Introduction

Applied linguistics is important for students of language, whether they are learning a foreign
language or their native language. By understanding the principles of applied linguistics,
students can learn how to use language more effectively. In addition, applied linguistics can
help language teachers to design more effective language teaching materials and methods.
There are many different areas of applied linguistics, such as second language acquisition,
bilingualism, language testing and assessment, speech pathology, and translation studies.
Each of these areas has its own unique challenges and opportunities. Applied linguistics is an
interdisciplinary field, which means that it draws on knowledge from many different
disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology, education, and anthropology. This
interdisciplinary approach allows us to apply the latest research findings to real-world
problems. So why do we need applied linguistics? Applied linguistics is important because it
helps us to understand how language works in real life settings. By understanding how
language works, we can learn how to use it more effectively. The central characteristics of
applied linguistics remain as follows: (1) a focus on contextualized language use; (2) theory
to practice and vice versa; (3) a practical approach to problem solving; and (4) a
multidisciplinary perspective. Language can assist us in understanding ourselves and why we
act the way we do, and we can use language unconsciously to gain an understanding of
ourselves and why we behave the way we do. Scholars studying linguistics attempt to answer
the following questions: What is our language unique and universal; how we acquire it; and
how it is acquired and changed over time.

Definitions of Applied Linguistics

Many people have tried to define of describe what AL is , below some of them.

Brumfit(1977) opines that : AL is the theoretical and empirical investigation of real world
problems in which language is a central issue.

Crab (2009) proposes that:

The focus of AL is on trying to resolve language based problems that people encounter in the
real word, whether they be learners , teachers , supervisors, academics, lawyers , service
providers , those who need social services ,test makers, policy developers, dictionary makers ,
and translators.

Subfields of AL

Second language acquisition

Language assessment and testing
Language policy and planning
Multilingualism
Psycholinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Discourse analysis

The needs for applied linguistics

Applied linguistics is a field that applies linguistic principles and theories to address real-
world language-related issues. It encompasses various areas of study and research where
linguistics intersects with practical concerns. Some of the key needs for applied linguistics
include:

1. Language teaching and learning: Applied linguistics plays a vital role in understanding
how languages are learned, developing effective teaching methodologies, and designing
language learning materials and curricula.

2. Second language acquisition: It focuses on the process of acquiring a second language and
aims to understand learners' challenges and optimize instructional strategies to facilitate
language learning.
3. Language assessment and testing: Applied linguistics helps in developing valid and
reliable language assessment tools and tests to evaluate language proficiency or skills
accurately.

4. Language policy and planning: It deals with issues related to language policies, language
revitalization efforts, language preservation, and language documentation.

5. Multilingualism and language contact: Applied linguistics explores the dynamics of

multilingual societies, language contact situations, code-switching, and language
maintenance or shift.

6. Language disorders and speech therapy: Applied linguistics contributes to understanding

language disorders such as aphasia, dyslexia, and specific language impairment and assists in
developing effective speech therapy interventions.

7. Discourse analysis: It examines how language is used in different contexts, such as

conversations, academic texts, professional communication, and media discourse.

8. Sociolinguistics: Applied linguistics investigates the relationship between language and

society, including language variation, language attitudes, language and gender, and language
and identity.

9. Translation and interpretation: Applied linguistics plays a crucial role in understanding the
process of translation and interpreting, including the challenges faced by translators and
interpreters and the development of translation technologies.
10. Computer-mediated communication: Applied linguistics investigates the ways language is
used in digital communication platforms, social media, and online interactions, aiming to
optimize communication strategies in cyberspace.

These needs highlight the diverse areas where applied linguistics contributes valuable
insights and practical solutions to real-world language issues.

The scope of applied linguistics

The scope of applied linguistics is broad and encompasses the practical application of
linguistic theories and principles to real-life situations. It involves studying how language is
used and how it impacts various fields such as language teaching, translation, language
planning, speech therapy, language assessment, and more. Applied linguistics also focuses on
understanding language disorders, multilingualism, language policy, language acquisition,
and the development of language technologies. It aims to solve language-related problems
and improve communication in diverse contexts.

Standard English

"The term Standard English refers to both an actual variety of language and an idealized
norm of English acceptable in many social situations. As a language variety, Standard
English is the language used in most public discourse and in the regular operation of
American social institutions. The news media, the government, the legal profession, and the
teachers in our schools and universities all view Standard English as their proper mode of
communication, primarily in expository and argumentative writing, but also in public
speaking.
"Standard English is thus different from what is normally thought of as speech in that
Standard English must be taught, whereas children learn to speak naturally without being
taught."
(The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style. Houghton Mifflin, 2005

"We need to know Standard English, but we need to know it critically, analytically, and in the
context of language history. We also need to understand the regularity ofnon-standard
variants. If we approach good and bad grammar in this way, the study of language will be a
liberating factor—not merely freeing learners from socially stigmatized usage by replacing
that usage with new linguistic manners, but educating people in what language and linguistic
manners are all about."
(Edwin L. Battistella, Bad Language: Are Some Words Better Than Others? Oxford
University Press, 2005

Tacit Conventions of Usage

"[T]he conventions of linguistic usage are tacit. The rules of standard English are not
legislated by a tribunal but emerge as an implicit consensus within a virtual community of
writers, readers, and editors. That consensus can change over time in a process as unplanned
and uncontrollable as the vagaries of fashion. No official ever decided that respectable men
and women were permitted to doff their hats and gloves in the 1960s or to get pierced and
tattooed in the 1990s—nor could any authority with powers short of Mao Zedong have
stopped these changes. In a similar manner, centuries of respectable writers have shrugged
off long-forgotten edicts by self-appointed guardians of the language, from Jonathan Swift’s
denunciation of banter, mob, and sham to Strunk and White’s disparaging of to personalize,
to contact, and six people (as opposed to six persons)."
(Steven Pinker, "False Fronts in the Language Wars." Slate, May 31, 2012
The Convenience of Standard English

"[Standard English is that] particular variety of English which is regarded by educated people
as appropriate for most types of public discourse, including most broadcasting, almost all
publication, and virtually all conversation with anyone other than intimates...

"Standard English is not entirely uniform around the globe: for example, American users of
standard English say the first floor and I've just gotten a letter and write center and color,
while British users say ground floor and I've just got a letter and write centre and colour. But
these regional differences are few in comparison with the very high degree of agreement
about which forms should count as standard. Nevertheless, standard English, like all living
languages Changes over time.

"It is important to realize that standard English is in no way intrinsically superior to any other
variety of English: in particular, it is not 'more logical,' 'more grammatical,' or 'more
expressive.' It is, at the bottom, a convenience: the use of a single agreed standard form,
learned by speakers everywhere, minimizes uncertainty, confusion, misunderstanding, and
communicative difficulty generally."
(R.L. Trask, Dictionary of English Grammar. Penguin, 2000

The difference between prescription and description

In applied linguistics, the terms "prescription" and "description" are commonly used to
differentiate between two different approaches or perspectives in studying language.

1. Prescription: Prescription refers to the normative or "should be" aspect of language. It

involves providing rules, guidelines, or recommendations for how language should be used.
Prescriptive approaches often focus on norms, standards, and formal grammar rules. They
aim to establish what is considered "correct" or "proper" language usage, typically based on
traditional grammar rules or language authorities' guidance.

2. Description: Description, on the other hand, is the objective and empirical study of
language as it is actually used by speakers and communities in real-world contexts.
Descriptive linguistics focuses on analyzing and understanding the structures, patterns,
variations, and functions of language based on data from various sources such as corpora,
observations, recordings, and interviews. Descriptive approaches aim to uncover and explain
how language works, without making value judgments about correctness or appropriateness.

In summary, prescription is concerned with language norms and rules, while description
focuses on the scientific study of language as it naturally occurs. Applied linguistics often
incorporates both perspectives to explore and explain language in practical contexts, such as
language teaching, language policy, and language assessment.

descriptive and prescriptive grammar

The main difference between descriptive and prescriptive grammar is that the descriptive
grammar describes how the language is used whereas the prescriptive grammar explains how
the language should be used by the speakers.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure, including the study
of grammar, syntax, and phonetics. With regard to studying the grammar, there are mainly
two approaches that one can use; they are descriptive grammar and prescriptive grammar.

What is Descriptive Grammar

Descriptive grammar focuses on describing the manner how either native or non-native
speakers use the language on a daily basis. Therefore, it includes a set of rules about language
based on how it is actually used, not how it should be used. Linguists often follow this
approach to grammar, where they can study the rules or patterns that underlie the speaker’s
use of words and sentences.

Since this approach basically focuses on identifying and explaining the varied use of the
language according to the user, this grammar discipline does not explain what is correct and
what is incorrect. In other words, one can also describe this grammar approach as an
‘objective description of the grammatical constructions of the language’.

Descriptive grammarians examine the principles and patterns that underlie the use of words,
phrases, clauses, and sentences of the particular speakers or the users of the language.

Furthermore, according to the definition provided by Edwin L. Battistella “Descriptive

grammar is the basis for dictionaries, which record changes in vocabulary and usage, and for
the field of linguistics, which aims at describing languages and investigating the nature of
language.”
Another definition of descriptive grammar is that “A descriptive grammar is a study of a
language, its structure, and its rules as they are used in daily life by its speakers from all
walks of life, including standard and nonstandard varieties” (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990).

What is Prescriptive Grammar

Prescriptive grammar explains or rather prescribes rules on how a

language should or ought to be used by the speakers. As a result, prescriptive grammar
consists of a set of rules that teach the speaker the most accurate and the correct manner to
use the language, highlighting what should be used and what should be avoided so that he can
achieve that certain grammar and the language standard.
The root of prescriptive grammar dates back to the 18th century, where the social elites
needed to prescribe what is the standard form of language. Therefore, prescriptive grammar
in a way attempts to enforce rules concerning “correct” or “incorrect” language usage, unlike
descriptive grammar. In brief, this approach to grammar specifies how a language should be
used and what rules should be followed as derived from a particular model of grammar.
Prescriptive grammars are often employed for teaching those who use nonstandard or non-
native language forms. The terms ‘prescriptivism’ and ‘normative grammar’ also refer to this
approach to grammar.
Accordingly, as described by Greenbaum, (1996) “…A prescriptivist view of language
implies a distinction between “good grammar” and “bad grammar,” and its primary focus is
on standard forms of grammar and syntactic constructions. Among native speakers of
practically any language, a prescriptivist approach to grammar often encompasses many
ideas, opinions, and judgments about how and when grammar rules should be used.”

As defined by Ilse Depraetere and Chad Langford “A prescriptive grammar is one that gives
hard and fast rules about what is right (or grammatical) and what is wrong (or
ungrammatical), often with advice about what not to say but with little explanation” (2012)

For example, if a person says; “He and me were arguing about the presentation”. A
descriptive grammarian will explain this sentence as grammatical while a prescriptive
grammarian will say this sentence is incorrect since it has violated the standard grammar
rules with the incorrect usage of ‘me’ with “He” (where it should be He and I). Therefore,
prescriptive grammar attempts to establish the standard in the language.

Difference Between Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar

Definition

Descriptive grammar is the approach to grammar that is concerned with describing the usage
of language by native or non-native speakers without reference to proposed norms of
correctness or advocacy of rules based on such norms.
Prescriptive grammar, on the other hand, is an approach to grammar that is concerned with
establishing norms of correct and incorrect usage and formulating rules based on these norms
to be followed by users of the language.

Principle

Descriptive grammar takes the principle that the language usage can vary according to varied
speakers. Thus, it does not consider what is ‘correct’ or incorrect grammar whereas
prescriptive grammar takes the principle that the long existed grammar rules created by the
native speakers are the ‘correct’, and the variations are ‘incorrect.’

Grammar Rules

The rules are made according to the daily usage of the language by the speakers. Therefore,
no specific or standard rules are there in descriptive grammar, rather the rules describe and
explain the speaker’s manner of language usage. On the contrary, there are specified and
standard set or grammar rules in prescriptive grammar that should be followed by the speaker
in their usage.

Descriptive and prescriptive grammar are two approaches to grammar in a language. While
descriptive grammar is a subjective study of the use of language by speakers, descriptive
grammar attempts to impose certain normative grammar rules on the speakers in order to
reach the accepted standard of that language. This is the main difference between descriptive
and prescriptive grammar.

Code switching and language choice

Code switching refers to the practice of switching between two or more languages or varieties
of language in a conversation. It is commonly observed in bilingual or multilingual
individuals who are comfortable speaking and understanding multiple languages. Code
switching can occur at the sentence, phrase, or even word level.

Language choice, on the other hand, refers to the decision-making process of selecting a
specific language for communication in a given situation. Factors such as the language
proficiency of the participants, cultural norms, context, and social dynamics may influence
language choice.

LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Language in the contemporary world plays a vital role in communication, cultural expression,
and global interaction. Here are a few key points about the significance of language today:

1. Global Communication: Language allows us to communicate with people from different

cultures and regions. In our interconnected world, effective communication through language
is crucial for business, diplomacy, education, and social interactions.

2. Cultural Identity: Language is deeply intertwined with our cultural identities. It helps us
express our thoughts, values, and traditions, contributing to a sense of belonging and cultural
preservation. Different languages hold unique historical, social, and emotional significance
for various communities.

3. Economic Importance: Language proficiency can enhance job prospects and economic
opportunities. In an increasingly globalized economy, companies seek employees with
multilingual skills to connect with diverse markets and establish international partnerships.

4. Educational Advancement: Language learning fosters cognitive development, empathy,

and intercultural understanding. It expands educational horizons, enabling individuals to
access a broader range of knowledge, literature, and information.

5. Technology and Language: Language technologies, like GPTGO, have transformed how
we interact with digital platforms. Machine translation, natural language processing, and
voice recognition systems continue to evolve, making information accessible across
languages and cultures.

6. Language Preservation: While globalization has increased the dominance of some major
languages, efforts are being made to preserve endangered languages. Recognizing the
importance of linguistic diversity, initiatives focus on revitalizing and documenting
endangered languages to safeguard cultural heritage.

Overall, language acts as a bridge, connecting people, cultures, and ideas in the contemporary
world. It facilitates understanding, enables progress, and enriches our collective human
experience

A. Language and Languages

The term language is used in the singular, as though language were a single unitary
phenomenon. Yet, although languages have common properties, from the point of view of
their users it is the differences that count. People do not speak language as an abstraction, but
particular languages. And from a practical perspective the most salient feature is that these
languages are mutually incomprehensible. When we hear an unknown language, we cannot
even make out the boundaries between words. Reading it is not better because, even if it uses
familiar symbols, we do not know what the word means.

These simple facts mean that one of the main problems in which language is implicated is
how speakers of different languages can communicate with each other. There are two
possible solution: one is for one, or both, sets of speakers to learn the others language, and the
other is to employ a translator.

B. Attitude to Languages

Native speaker of a language usually regard it as in some sense their own property. Yet they
do not reason other people acquiring it. They was nothing in the process and are flattered to
share something so highly valued. Yet, however many people learn their language, they still
regard it as theirs. They feel that outsiders cannot identify with it quite as they do. To them it
remains familiar and intrinsic, to others it remains foreign and something apart.

Here again, as with the issue of correctness, there is a marked difference between popular and
academic belief. Those, while linguist regard all languages as equal and arbitrary systems of
fulfilling the same function, this is far from how they are perceived by language users. Some
languages are popularity regard as being less complex than others. For example, one reason
often given for the spread of international English is that it is easier to learn. Some languages
are regarded as being more beautiful, and all are regarded as carrying the spirit of a particular
nation or people. Those Latin is widely believe to be more logical, or German more efficient
or French more romantic than other languages and so on.

C. The languages of nations: boundaries and relationships.

In addition to academic linguistic and popular approach, there are two other ways in which
languages can be compared, both of which are of particular importance in the contemporary
world. These are by number of speakers and by geographical distribution. While the world’s
largest languages, such as Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic, have hundreds of
millions of speakers and are frequently used beyond their homelands, the majority of the
world’s languages are much smaller, some with only a few hundred speakers. Smaller
languages are confined to restricted areas and specific ethnic groups, and are often
vulnerable. Among the world’s estimated 6.000 languages, language death now occurs
increasingly frequently.

Powerful nations have frequently asserted their unity by promoting one single majority
language in a standard written from while simultaneously suppressing or ignoring
minority languages. Yet there is also an ironic consequence to the successful promotion of
one language. In those nations which have spread their language beyond their own borders
the result has often been a multiplication rather than a reduction of the languages within
them.

All nations have substantial linguistic groups within their borders, making cross linguistic
communication an international as well as an international affair. On a personal level this
means that many individuals as perhaps even the majority of the world’s population bilingual
or multilingual. They must change tongue to go to work or school, to speak to elderly
relatives, or deal with bureaucracy, making this code switching a salient and significant part
their daily experience. In Africa for example it is common to switch between a small local
language, a dominant regional language, and a former colonial language such as French,
English, or Portuguese.

D. The growth of English

Whereas in the past, English was but one international language among others it is now
increasingly in a category of its own. In addition to its four hundreds million or so first-
language speakers, and over a billion people who live in a country where it is an official
language, English is now thought as the main foreign language in virtually every country, and
used for business, education, and access to information by a substantial proportion of the
world’s population. Consequently the role of other international languages such as French or
Russian has diminished drastically. As with geographical areas, so with areas of activity.
French is no longer the international language of air traffic control, or dominant and
diplomacy. German and Russian are no longer internationally necessary for scientific study.
Nor is it just a question of native-speaker numbers. Although Putonghua remains the world’s
largest first language, it has not gained ground as either an official second language or a
foreign language.

In recent years the growth of English has been further accelerated by a startling expansion in
the quantity and speed of international corporations, linked to expanding US power and
influenced, ensures an ever-increasing use of English in business. Films, songs, television
programmes, and advertisements in English are heard and seen in many countries where it is
not the first nor even a second language, both feeding and reflecting this growth. The
dominant language of the internet is English and with the frequent absence of available
software for writing systems other than the Roman alphabet, electronic mail is often
conducted in English, even among people who share another language.

This new situation means that, for a large proportion of the world’s population, the learning
and use of English as an additional language is both a major language need-often one upon
which their livelihood depends and also one of the salient language experiences of their lives.
In addition, both non-native and native speakers are involved in Teaching English as a
foreign language (TEFL) as teacher, planners, administrators, publishers, and testers. For
these reasons alone, the teaching and learning of English has generated tremendous personal,
political, academic, and commercial interest. Accompanied (both as caused and effect) by
globalization, and virtually unchallenged US military and economic ascendancy, the growth
of English raises important concerns about the dangers of linguistic and cultural
homogeneity.
E. English and Englishes

In the case of smaller and less powerful languages, limited to a particular community in a
particular place, this is both unexceptionaland unremarkable. Once, however a language
begins to spread beyond its original homeland the situation changes and conflicts of opinion
begin to emerge. Thus even until surprisingly recently, many British English speakers
regarded American English as an impure deviation, rather as they might have regarded non
standard forms within their own islands. While such feeling of ownership is to be expected,
they quickly become, as they are in the USA, more numerous and more internationally
powerful than speakers of the parent.

There is a similar relationship between South America and Castilian Spanish, and the
Portugueses of Brazil and Portugal. Yet despite the inevitability of this process, there is still
possessiveness and attempts to call a halt. Few people nowadays would question the
legitimacy of different standard Englishes for countries where it is the majority language. We
talk of standard American English, standard Australian English, and so on. Still contested by
some, however, is the validity of standard for countries where, although English may be a
substantial or official language, it is not that of the majority. Thus there is still opposition,
even within the countries themselves, to the notion of Indian English, Singapore English, and
so on. Far more contentious, however, is the possibility that, as English becomes more and
more widely used, recognized varieties might emerge even in places where there is
no national native speaker population or official status.

F. Native speakers

All this raises issues about the very term native speakers. We need to look at some of the
common assumptions about what it means to be a native speaker. Firstly, there is the question
of personal history. Native speakers are considered to be people who acquired the acquired
the language naturally and effortlessly in childhood, through a combination of exposure, the
child’s innate talent for language learning, and the need to communicate. Secondly, there is a
question of expertise. Native speakers are seen as people who use the language, or a variety
of it, correctly, and have insight into what is or is not acceptable. Thirdly, there is a question
of knowledge and loyalty. Being a native speaker, it is assumed, entails knowledge of, and
loyalty to, a community which uses the language.

In many cases this threefold definition is relatively unproblematic, particularly for small
languages spoken mostly in one particular place. Take Icelandic culture. Spoken 300.000
Icelanders on an island of 100.000 square kilometers. Most people there have grown up
speaking Icelandic, are expert in its use, and identity with Icelandic culture. In the case of
larger and more widely distributed languages however, and most especially in the case of
English, serious problems with the usual definitions of native speaker begin to emerge. Many
English speakers whether in the inner, outer, or expanding circle grew up with and use
another language in the home. Their cultural loyalty is wholly or partly to a non-English-
speaking community and they may well be opposed to the dominant English-speaking
culture, feeling what their own language and values are threatened.

Necessarily reflect upon their expertise. Many such English speakers use the language just as
expertly as the traditionally defined native speakers. certainly, there are often though by no
means always minors differences of accent, phrasing, or confident in grammaticality
judgements. Yet these are just as often accompanied by additional expertise traditionally
defined native speakers may not have. Here, it is important to take stock of those aspects of
language proficiency which the traditional definition of the native speaker does not include.
Firstly, if says nothing about in proficiency in writing but only about proficiency in speech.
Indeed, some native speakers are illiterate, and many of those who can write do so
inaccurately (lovly new potato’s) or clumsily (revise customer service arrangement presently
under implementation). Secondly, the native speaker’s knowledge of the language is implicit
rather than explicit. He or she uses the roles correctly in other word but cannot necessary
explain them. For example, trey asking the average native speaker to explain the different
between “shall” and “will”. Lastly, traditional native speakerness implies nothing about size
vocabulary, range of style or ability to communicate across diverse community in all of these
aspects of proficiency, it is quite common to find that the expertise of the non-native speaker
exceeds that of many native speaker.

G. English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

What matters in its use is clarity and comprehensibility rather than conformity to one of the
existing standards. Indeed, being native speaker in the traditional sense does not necessarily
imply expertise in ELF, and of the purposes of international communication native speakers
may need to adjust their language to a new norm.

This rapid growth of ELF should be a major concern to contemporary applied linguistics. We
need to consider whether the current situation is unprecedented, whether it has produced a
new set of language related problems. These are pressing issues, affecting in one way or
another everyone who learns or uses English, native and nonnative speaker alike.

Different approaches to teaching English did not just occur by in response to changing
geopolitical circumstances and social attitudes and values, as well as to shifts of fashion in
linguistics which, for all its apparent objectivity, was itself subject to social change. Thus
each successive movement in ELT has had its own particular stance on language learning,
and on what English is, reflecting the ideology of its time.

Second language acquisition, World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca