Applied Linguistics as Social Science
Part 2: Some key issues in applied linguistics
This part is intended particularly for those readers who are less familiar with the discipline of applied linguistics, and its aim is to introduce some of the key concepts, terms and controversies that will be referred to later. However, since the discipline is itself fairly heterogeneous, readers from within it may also find the section of interest as an indication of our position within this broad field. The general reader may be baffled by the distinction between 'applied' linguistics and simple 'linguistics', so we shall explain some of the background in what follows. The term 'applied' linguistics reflects in part the nature of the work which its practitioners do, but the fact that 'linguistics' and 'applied linguistics' each have their academic 'territory' also indicates a degree of debate about more conceptual matters, such as the nature of language, and how to identify means of describing it, classifying it, and explaining the way people use it.
It is traditional in introductions to applied linguistics to begin with linguistics and then explain what is applied about it. For example, Carter (1993) indicates that '... applied linguistics is the application of linguistic theories, descriptions and methods to the solution of language problems which have arisen in a range of human, cultural and social contexts' (p.3). If'... linguistics reifies "language"', asks Brumfit (1997: 90), 'what does applied linguistics reify? More than just language- "language practices".' What applied linguists do could be considered a definition of what the discipline is (Davies 1999), so, since (on strict quantitative measures) by far the majority of its work is concerned with foreign language teaching, this is what it is perceived to be by many. But this overlooks a great deal. Cook (2003: 8), for example, lists a significant number of areas that '... fall within our definition of applied linguistics and are claimed as areas of enquiry by organizations and journals concerned with the discipline'. This list includes the following three main areas and their subcategories: Language and education: first-language education, additional-language education (subdivided into second- and foreign-language education), clinical linguistics, language testing; Language, work and law: work-place communication, language planning, forensic linguistics; Language, information and effect: literary stylistics, critical discourse analysis, translation and interpretation, information design, lexicography. From this broader perspective, applied linguistics may be redefined as 'problem-based researching into communication-mediated issues in social life' (Candlin pers. comm.). In such explorations, applied linguistics draws on a range of communication-interested disciplines and tools. Linguistics features among these, but certainly not to the exclusion of the others; indeed our claim that applied linguistics needs to be understood as a social science exemplifies the fact that descriptions of language and languages alone are inadequate to account for language-related practices and the problems associated with these. Thus 'applied linguistics' is a somewhat problematic label, but one that is convenient and has become established despite its problems.
What then are the core issues with which applied linguistics is concerned? Obviously, language itself is one key area of enquiry; the motivated practice of human agents as they use language is another; and the nature of the structured social contexts within which people seek to pursue their interests- where language is usually a medium for doing so, and is sometimes also an objective of those interests- is a third. In this part, we sketch out some of the ways in which applied linguists have contributed to our understanding of these overlapping dimensions of language in social life, influenced as they are by a range of disciplinary perspectives. The division of topics is necessarily somewhat arbitrary, since, the social theoretical position we advance takes account of the interplay between the different domains, or strata, of the social world. However, in order to structure the material in a way which is consistent with the preceding part, we start with those topics which are most closely linked to language itself, move on to those concerned with situated practices, and conclude with an outline of some of the wider social issues to which applied linguistics makes a contribution.
