A social realist approach to research in applied linguistics
Why applied linguistic research questions need social theory
We offered a broad interpretation of what constitutes applied linguistics, citing the areas listed by Cook (2003). To complement that list, we reproduce here the list of strands within which the American Association for Applied Linguistics invited papers for its 2003 conference. Again, the discipline, as indicated by such a large international conference, clearly incorporates a wide range of areas, namely: 'Analysis of discourse & interaction; Applied linguistics research methodology; Assessment & evaluation; Bilingual, immersion, heritage, and language minority education; Language acquisition & language attrition; Language & ideology; Language & learner characteristics; Language & technology; Language, cognition & the brain; Language, culture, & socialization; Reading, writing & literacy; Second & foreign language pedagogy; Sociolinguistics; Text analysis; Translation & interpretation'.
Obviously, we cannot present in just one chapter the rail implications of the social scientific approach we have been outlining for practical research in all these areas, so instead we have begun by offering some general principles which we believe are of potential relevance for this wide range of interests. To make the discussion less abstract and general, we now present a series of questions which cover the kinds of research problems that the applied linguist might wish to address. These questions are composites, adapted - to indicate broad areas of research - from the kinds of topics which we have encountered in the journals, as supervisors of graduate students, as participants at academic conferences and so on. The questions we cite, of course, do not preclude consideration of the larger issues of interest to applied linguistics as a whole, but are relevant to the small-scale, time-limited research contexts which are familiar to many graduate students and practicing academics.
• What works to make English schoolchildren learn foreign languages better?
• Why, on a standardized L2 test, do students in Group A achieve consistently better than students in Group B?
• What kinds of communicative practices characterize public campaigns in health-care promotion, and (how) do these lead to conceptualizations of particular conditions, such as HIV/ AIDS?
• How is the relationship between English as a world language and England's history as an imperial power manifest in the language policies in a particular country?
• What constitutes coherence in discourse, and what should learners be taught that will make more coherent their sustained contributions in an interview conducted to assess their competence in English?
• Should advanced learners of English in Chinese universities be encouraged to make use of the more independent style of learning prevalent in English and American universities, and if so, how?
• What are the differences between business letters written in English by business professionals in different countries?
• What are the similarities and differences in the requesting behavior of the speakers of two different languages (such as Japanese and English, for example)?
• What guidelines should be developed for the protection and development of the cultures and languages of ethnic minorities in a specific country?
• What challenges face bilingual speakers who are called on to interpret between the police and minority language speaker detainees?
• What are the characteristics of synchronous computer-mediated communication among a group of advanced learners of English?
We shall make reference to these questions and how studies aimed at answering them might be designed in accordance with the claims about the social world. The observation to be made at this point is that all of these questions, as applied linguistic questions, depict some form of social interaction which by its very nature must be relational, and which will involve people pursuing their interests and projects within social contexts and settings.
