What is Applied Linguistics?

Applied Linguistics (AL) is the utilization of the knowledge

about the nature of language achieved by linguistic research for
the improvement of the efficiency of some practical task in
which language is a central component.” (Corder, 1974, p. 24)“
Applied Linguistics entails using what we know about language,
about how it is used, and about how it is learned in order to
solve some problem in the real world.
Applied Linguistics uses language-related research in a wide
variety of fields (e.g. language acquisition, language teaching,
literacy, gender studies, language policy, speech therapy,
discourse analysis, censorship, workplace communication,
media studies, translation, lexicography, forensic linguistics).
“The focus of applied linguistics is on trying to resolve
language-based problems that people encounter in the real
world, whether they be learners, teachers, supervisors,
academics, lawyers, service providers, those who need social
services, test takers, policy developers, dictionary makers,
translators, or a whole range of business clients.” (Grabe, 2002,
p. 9).
Defining characteristics of Applied Linguistics
Autonomous, multidisciplinary and problem solving: uses and
draws on theory from other related fields concerned with
language and generates its own theory in order to find solutions
to language related problems and issues in the real world.•
Practical concerns have an important role in shaping the
questions that AL will address.
• Language related problems concern learners, teachers,
academics, lawyers, translators, test takers, service providers,
etc.
What problems are related to language?
language learning, language teaching, language contact
(language & culture), language policy and planning, language
assessment
A sample of questions Applied Linguistics addresses:
How can we teach languages better?
How can we diagnose speech pathologies better?
How can we improve the training of translators?
How can we develop valid language examinations?
How can we determine the literacy levels of a population?
What advice can we give the ministry of education on proposals
to introduce a new teaching method?
What is the relationship between AL and other language
related disciplines?
Applied linguistics occupies an intermediary, mediating position
between language related disciplines (linguistics,
psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics) and professional
practice]
It uses theories/principles from language related disciplines in
order to understand language related issues and to solve
language related problems. The choice of which disciplines are
involved in applied linguistics matters depends on the
circumstances.
Applied linguistics conducts research into professional practice
and on the basis of the results develops theory.
Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Linguistics is primarily concerned with language in itself and in
findings ways of analyzing language and building theories that
describe language.
Applied linguistics is concerned with the role of language in
peoples’ lives and problems associated with language use in
peoples’ lives.
Linguistics is essential but not the only feeder discipline.

Description of Language and Language Use

What is a Vocabulary ? One of the most difficult questions to

answer in vocabulary studies is “what is a word?”, and there are
a variety of only partly satisfactory answers depending on the
reasons for asking a question. • Often we are interested in how
many different words some one knows or use. For example, if
we are interested in how much sight vocabulary a learner has,
then we would count types. • Some of the problems with
counting types include deciding what to do with capital letters. •
There is evidence (Nagy et al, 1989) that language users see
closely relevant word forms (mends, mend, mended, mending)
as belonging to same word family that determinates the
familiarity of each word.
There are some groups of words, such as good morning and
at the end of the day, which seems to be used like a single word.
• Some of the groups may be items that have not been analyzed
in to parts but are just learned, stored an used as complete units
What vocabulary should be learned? • What vocabulary to focus
on should be determined by two major considerations the needs
of learners and the usefulness of the vocabulary items. • The
most striking features of the results of a frequency based study
are: • The very wide spread of frequencies, with some items
occurring many many items and some occurring only one. • The
relatively small number of words needed to cover a v ery large
proportion of the tokens in text. • The very large number of low
frequency items that account for a very small proportion of the
token text.
The information from frequency studies suggest a cost-benefit
approach to dealing with vocabulary, if we use frequency counts
to distinguish high frequency from low frequency words then its
clear that the high frequency words need to be the first and main
vocabulary learners. • These words are vey important learning
goal for learners with academic purpose who have learned the
high frequency words of English on average, these 30 words on
e very page of an academic text.
How should vocabulary be learned • Many teachers would
assume that vocabulary learning stems mainly from the teach in
classroom. However, vocabulary learnin g needs to be more
broadly basd than that, let bus look at the four strands of
vocabulary learninn in turn
Learning Vocabulary from Meaning-focused Output
(speaking and writing)
Learning from meaning-focused output Learning through
speaking and writing Necessary to move receptive knowledge
into productive knowledge
The enhancement of vocabulary through the productive skills
can occur in several ways: • Activities can be designed •
Speaking activities involving group work • The learning of a
particular word is a cumulative process
Joe, Nation and Newton describe guidelines for the design of
speaking activities and try to optimize vocabulary learning by
careful design of the written input to such activities: • Predicting
what parts of the written input are most likely to be used in the
task • Using retelling role-play or problem-solving discussion. •
Encouraging creative use of the vocabulary through having to
reshape the written input to a particular purpose.
Deliberate Vocabulary Learning • Deliberate learning is more
focused and goal-directed than incidental learning. • There is a
long history of research on deliberate vocabulary learning,
which has resulted in a very useful set of learning guidelines:
Learning guidelines 1- Retrieve rather than recognize: write the
word to be learned on one side of a small card and its translation
on the other side. 2- Use appropriately sized group of cards: at
first start with small packs of cards-about 15 or 20 words. 3-
Space repetitions: the best spacing is to go through the cards a
few minutes after looking at them and then an hour or so later…
4- Repeat the words aloud or to yourself: this ensures you that
the words have a good chance of going into long-term memory.
5- Process the words thoughtfully: for words which are difficult
to learn, use depth of processing techniques like the keyword
technique. 6- Avoid interference: make sure that words of
similar spelling or of related meaning are not together in the
same pack of cards.
7- Avoid a serial learning effect: keep changing the order of the
words in the pack. 8- Use context where this help: write
collocates of the word on the card too where this is helpful.
Deliberate vocabulary learning is very important par of a
vocabulary learning programme. Deliberate vocabulary teaching
can have three major goals: 1- it can aim to result in well-
established vocabulary learning “rich instruction”. 2- it can have
the aim of simply raising learners’ consciousness of particular
words so that they are noticed when they are meet again. 3- it
can have the aim of helping learners gain knowledge of
strategies and of systematic features of the language that will be
of use in learning a large number of words.
Deliberate vocabulary teaching can take a variety of forms
including: • Pre-teaching of vocabulary before a language use
activity • Exercises that follow a listening or reading text. • Self-
contained vocabulary activities like the second-hand cloze
( Laufer and Osimo, 1991)
Word detectives where learners report on words they
have found. • Collocation activities • Quickly dealing with
words as they occur in a lesson
Developing Fluency with Vocabulary across the Four Skills -
Developing fluency involves learning to make the best use of
what is already known. - Fluency development activities do not
usually focus specifically on vocabulary or grammar but aim at
fluency in listening, speaking, reading or writing. - There are
two approaches to fluency development:
1- Repetition and could be called “the well-beaten
path approach’ to fluency” 2- Making many connections and
associations with a known item. “The richness approach”. *
Fluency can then occur because the learner is in control of the
system of the language and can use variety of efficient, well-
connected and well-practiced paths to the wanted item.
Strategy Development There are four major strategies that help
with finding the meaning of unknown words and making the
words stay in memory 1-Guessing from context clues 2-
Deliberately studying words on word cards 3-Using words parts
4-Dictionary use
Learners need to reach such a level of skill in the use of these
strategies that it seems easier to use them that NOT use them. •
Teachers should provide training in the strategies so that
learners can deal with these words independently.
GUESSING FROM CONTEXT Guessing a meaning for a word
from contex t clues is the most useful of all the strategies.
Learning from WORD CARDS and using WORD PARTS The
strategy of earning vocabulary from samall cards made by the
learners has already been described in the section on the
deliberate study of words, example, using the word “FUN FOR
HAPPINESS” Using word parts to help remember the meaning
of a word is somewhat similar. THE WORD PARTS ARE
LIKE KEY WORDS
DICTIONARY USE Dictionary may be monolingual, bilingual
or bilingualized. Dictionaries may be used receptively to support
reading and listening or productively, to support writing and
speaking.
ASSESSING VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE • Vocabulary
test can have a range of purposes: • To measure vocabulary
size(use ful for placement purposes or as one element of a
proficiency measure) • To measure what has just been learned(a
short-term achievement measure) • To measure what has been
learned in a course(a long achievement measure) • .To diagnose
areas of strength and weakness (a diagnostic measure)
LIMITATIONS ON GENERALIZING VOCABULARY SIZE
ESTIMATES AND STRATEGIES TO OTHER LANGUAGES
The Chief characteristic of English vocabulary is that it is very
large. • English vocabulary is basically Anglo-Saxon in origin,
but after the Norman invansion 1066, huge numbers of Norman
French words found their way into English. • English
vocabulary was again very heavily influenced in the eighteenth
century when scholars deliberately expanded the vocabulary by
introducing words based on Latin and Greek.
the Lexical bar
Englsih educationis about learning this difficult
vocabulary, which Corson (1995) called the ‘Lexical bar’ or
‘barrier’. • English speakers are expected to know these words
and to be able to use them appropriately. • The basic problem
here seems to be that English vocabulary consists of a large
number of different ‘items’, which are layered according to the
contexts in which they appear.
Native speaker develop the ability to create new words as they
need them, and to easily decode new words created by other
speakers when they hear them.
Vocabulary size and language profiency
This means the relationship between vocabulary size and over
all linguistic ability may differ from one language to another. •
Core vocabulary you can call it Simplish and is about 200 core
words makes up forth is by making very extensive use of
compounding. • Difficult words in the sense of words that are
infrequent – would exist in Simplish, but they would not be a
problem for learners.
English has very different vocabulary registers for special
areas of discourse and this makes it important for learners to
acquire academic vocabulary. • She er size of English
vocabulary has a very marked effecton the way we teach
English, and severely constrains the level of achievement we
expect of learner

Grammar
Grammar is described as a list of do’s and don’ts, rules ->
tell us what we should say/ shouldn’t say
The rules of grammar found mainly in written language
It is an objective description of the structures of languages

Types of grammar
Descriptive Grammars
Grammars do not make distinctions between correct and
incorrect forms & aim to describe language as it is actually used.
=> a blueprint for building well-formed structures, and they
represent speakers’ unconscious knowledge, or ‘mental
grammar’ of the language.
This approach focuses on describing how native speakers
actually do speak and does not prescribe how they ought to
speak.
Example:
Is the programme that is on television any good?
Is the programme that on television is good?
Prescriptive Grammar
Grammars with rules that make distinctions between correct and
incorrect forms which tells us how we ought to speak and how
we ought not to speak.
This approach codifies certain distinctions between standard and
non-standard varieties as correct or good English and the non
standard as incorrect or bad English
Pedagogical Grammars
the type of grammar designed for the needs of second-language
students and teachers which resembles a descriptive grammar
much more than a prescriptive one.
Applied linguistics must be concerned that students not only can
produce grammatical structure that that is formally accurate,
students must be able to use them meaningfully and
appropriately as well.
ISSUES WHEN DESCRIBING GRAMMAR
Which rules to describe?
- Rules
General rules e.g would have tried
Apparent exceptions e.g he leaves
Irregularioties
- Varities
Standartd (formal
Non standard in formal
- Style
Formal – functional
Written – spoken
Formal grammar is concerned with the forms themselves
and with how they oprate within overall system of
grammar.
Learners not only need to achieve a certain degree of
formal accuracy but that they also need to use structures
meaningfully and appropriately as well.
Functional grammar focuses more on an appropriate use of
language.
Discourse grammar
Discourse is used to mean the organization of language at a
level above the sentence or individual conversational turn –
Speakers and writers make grammatical choices that depend on
how construe and wish to represent the context and on how they
wish to position themselves in it
Speakers use the past perfect tense to give to give reason or
justification for the main events of narrative.
Spoken and written grammar:
What is the difference between the grammar of writing and the
grammar of speaking?
Spoken grammar (SG) is the grammar of everyday interaction.
It is informal and natural. SG is flexible in its word order.The
100 most common words in written grammar are prepositions,
pronouns and articles - the small words which give correct
grammatical structure to sentences. In spoken English, many
of the top 100 words are verbs.
The characteristics of spoken grammar are: ellipsis, heads,
tails, fillers, backchannels and phrasal chunks
Carter and McCarthy (1995) believe that the differences
between spoken and written grammar are especially important
for pedagogical grammars, since ‘descriptions that rest on the
written mode or on restricted genres and registers of spoken
language are likely to omit many common features of
everyday informal grammar and usage’ (Carter and McCarthy,
1995: 154).
L EARNING GRAMMAR

Habit formation:
Habits were formed through stimulus-response conditioning
leading to ‘overlearning’ of the grammatical patterns
It helps the students to overcome the habits of their first
language and inculcate those of the target language
Teacher:
• Conduct pattern practice drills of various types:
repetition, transformation, question and answer, etc.
• Introduce little new vocabulary until grammatical
patterns were firmly established
Language use: Tightly controlled to prevent Ss make •
errors leading to the formation of bad habits which later
proves difficult to eradicate
Grammar learning is facilitated by the frequency use of the
forn in the language to which the learner is exposed

Teaching grammar
Input flooding
This is done through increasing the number of times that
students encounter the target structure in particular text.

Peer interaction
Consciousness raising tasks.
Students are given data and are encouraged to discover
generalizations for themselves.
In-put processing tasks
Students are guided to pay attention to particular aspects of the
target language rather than working on explicit rule learning
and application that differ between L1 and L2
Grammaring
Students are engaged in communicative task where it is
necessary to certain structure to complete it.