Applied linguistics

Ch1

Without language many of our most important activities are inconceivable.

Activities exist without language like Sexual relations, preparing and eating food, manual
labour, and craft.
Language use is in many ways a natural phenomenon beyond conscious control.
Applied linguistics: the academic discipline concerned with the relation of knowledge about
language to decision-making in the real world.
Main fields of applied linguistics:
1- Language and education
2- language, work, and law
3- Language, information, and effect
First-language education when a child studies their home language
additional-language education divided into second-language education when someone
studies their society’s majority or official language which is not their home language
foreign-language education when someone studies the language of another country.
Clinical linguistics the study and treatment of speech and communication impairments.
Language testing the assessment and evaluation of language achievement and proficiency,
in both first and additional languages, and for general and specific purposes.
Workplace communication the study of how language is used in the workplace
Language planning the making of decisions, often supported by legislation.
Forensic linguistics the deployment of linguistics evidence in criminal and other legal
investigations.
Literary stylistics the study of the relationship between linguistic choices and effects in
literature.
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) the study of the relationship between linguistic choices
and effects in persuasive uses of language.
Translation and interpretation the formulation of principles underlying the perceived
equivalence between a stretch of language and its translation.
Information design the arrangement and presentation of written language, including issues
relating to typography and layout
Lexicography the planning and complaining of both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries.

Disciplines concerned to be more independent are Clinical linguistics and translation

studies.
Discipline concerned to be more active is Foreign-language education.

Linguistics the academic discipline concerned with the study of language in general

One particularly influential type of idealization is that used in the generative linguistics
introduced by Noam Chomsky from the late 1950s onward.
What is the proper subject matter of linguistics in Chomsky view?
In his view, the proper subject matter of linguistics should be the representation of language
in the mind (Competence) rather than the way in which people actually use language in
everyday life (Performance)
Chomsky’s claim is that this internal is essentially biological rather than social.
 Competence Performance

the representation of language in the mind the way in which people actually use
language in everyday life

Sociolinguistics the relation between language and society.

Functional linguistics the concern is with how people actually use their language.
Corpus linguistics vast databanks containing millions of words of actual language in use
can be searched within seconds to yield extensive information about word frequencies and
combinations which is not revealed by intuition.

Applied linguistics linguistics

1-Its purpose is to engage with decision 1- Its purpose is to describe and explaini
making.

2- is concerned with that 2-Theories and description cannot be

deployed directly to solve a problem.

3- the academic discipline concerned with 3- the academic discipline concerned with
the relation of knowledge about language to the study of language in general.
decision-making in the real world.

4- Is not a matter of matching up findings

about language with pre-existing problems
but of using findings to explore how the
perception of problems might be changed.
this changed perception may implications
for linguistics.

Applied linguistics establishes a reciprocal relationship between experience and

expertise.

Ch2
Teaching children their own national language is synonymous with eliminating such
deviations.
The issue of what counts as correct is much more complex, discuss that.
1- A child with regional accent pronounces ‘’I brought it’’ with ah sound as ‘’I brart it’’
2- Child from USA moved to Britain say ‘’I’ve gotten it’’ instead of ‘’I’ve got it”
3- Child from USA moved to Britain writes ‘’color’’ instead of ‘’colour’’
4- Children put ‘’RU’’ instead of ‘’ are you’’, they give words different fashionable senses,
which the adults disapprove.
 Dialect standard

Regional and social-class varieties of the Generally use in written communication,

language which differ from the standard in taught in schools, and codified in
pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. dictionaries and grammar books.

Which language should be used in the class? Or What are the two views about
teaching standard form of language? Or two contradictory ways for teaching
standard? Should the teacher eliminate these dialects and national variety?
1- on the one hand, it can be seen as conferring an unfair advantage upon those children
who already speak a variety close to it, while at the same time denying the worth of other
dialects and damaging the heritage of those children who speak them.
2- on the other hand, given that the standard exists, has prestige and power and provides a
gateway to written knowledge, it can be argued that teaching it helps to give an equal
chance to all.

What are the two facts about teaching natural language? The school's approach to
teaching the national language?
1- The first fact is that any language is subject to enormous variation, There are differences
between individuals, social groups, generations, and nations, and language is used
differently in speech and writing and informal and formal situation.
2- The second fact is that many people are intolerant of this variation. They struggle for a
single standard way of using the language and care very deeply about achieving this norm.

Description prescription

saying what does happen saying what ought to happen

- The standard is neither superior nor more stable than any other variety.

The way in which linguistic describe the language? Give example about the facts that
linguistics point to justify their view about the standard?
1- If there was never any deviation from the norm then languages would never change.
2- If a single standard was absolute and unassailable then regional standards would never
gain independence.
3- Dialects have their own consistent rules.

Ch3
Applied linguistics problems in the world in which language is implicated.
How speakers of different languages can communicate with each other?
1- They can set of speakers to learn the other’s language.
2- They can employ a translator.
The native speaker's attitudes to their own language. discuss that
They feel that outsiders cannot identify with it as they do. to them remains familiar and
intrinsic, to others it remains foreign and something apart.
The academic beliefs:
Linguistics regard all languages as equal and arbitrary systems capable of fulfilling the same
functions. Some languages are popularly regarded as being less complex than others.
# Latin is widely believed to be more logical.
# German more efficient.
# French is more romantic.
How to separate between languages? Or what counts as a separate language? Or
Linguistics investigates languages in their:
1- in terms of their history 2- formal similarities. 3- boundaries
What do boundaries between languages mean?
A matter of mutual comprehensibility.
How the boundary between languages is a matter of mutual comprehensibility?
1- people who are said to speak the same language cannot understand each other, e.x The
dialect of Sicily makes little sense in Venice they are both described as ‘Italian’, Cantonese
and Putonghua mutually incomprehensible when speak are both referred as ‘Chinese’.
2- pairs of languages that are mutually comprehensible but are regarded as different, e.x
a. Speakers of Russian can guess the meaning of Ukrainian.
b. Italians may work for basic transactions in a Spanish-speaking country.
c. Readers of Japanese can make some headway with Chinese.
The ways in which language can be compared. Or where they can find the language?
Or How can we identified the largest languages?
1- Number of speakers.
2- geographical distribution
Smaller languages: Confined to restricted areas and specific ethnic groups, and are often
vulnerable.
# Half of the world’s languages are likely to disappear in the twenty-first century.

Reasons why the majority of monolinguals become multilingual?

Because they have spread their language beyond their own borders the result has often
been a multiplication rather than a reduction of the language within them.
E.g. A survey of London primary schools in 2000 revealed that a total of 350 home
languages are used by London schoolchildren.
Code switching All nations have substantial linguistic groups within their borders, making
cross-linguistics communication an international as well as an international affair.
Why do we code switching?
They must change their tongues to go to work or school, to speak to elderly relatives, or deal
with politics.
Example of code-switching
1-In Africa, 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.
2- For immigrants to Europe there is a switching between the family language and that of
their new home e.x. Turkish and German, or Arabic and French.
Why English is one of the largest languages?
1- Four hundred million or so first-language speakers and over a billion people who live in a
country where it is an official language.
2- English is now taught as the main foreign language in virtually every country, used for
business, education, and access to information by a substantial proportion of the world’s
population.
The growth of English has an impact on other languages explain.
1- International languages such as French or Russian has diminished drastically. As with
geographical areas, French is no longer the international language of air traffic control or
dominant diplomacy.
2- German and Russian are no longer international necessary for scientific study.
3- 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 expansion in
the quantity and speed of international communication.
How teaching English has created academic and political interest?
This new situation means that for a large proportion of the world’s population, the learning
and the use of English as an additional language is both a major language need, one upon
which livelihood depends, and also one of the salient language experiences of their lives.
Why most people want to learn English? or Why people interset in learn English?
1- A major language needs one upon which livelihood depends, and also one of the salient
language experiences of their lives.
2- Both non-native and native speakers are involved in Teaching English as a Foreign
Language(TEFL) as teachers, planners, administrators, publishers, and testers.

What are the paradoxical consequences of English?

1- It raises considerable doubts about whose language English is.
Braj Kachru describes this situation as one in which English exists in three
concentric circles: the inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle.
inner circle the predominantly English-speaking countries.
outer circle the former colonies where English is an official language.
expanding circle English is not an official nor a former colonial language, it is increasingly
part of many people's daily lives.
Give me the definition of native speakers? What is an assumption about native
speakers?
1- Personal history, Native speakers are considered to be people who get the language
naturally and effortlessly in childhood.
2- 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.
3- Knowledge and loyalty Native speakers, it is assumed, entail knowledge of, and loyalty
to, a community which uses the language.
What are aspects of language proficiency which traditional definition of the native
speaker does not include?
1- Nothing about proficiency in writing, but only about proficiency in speech
2- The native speaker’s knowledge of the language is implicit rather than explicit.
3- Native speakers implies nothing about size of vocabulary, range of styles, or ability to
communicate across diverse communities.
English as a lingua Franca (ELF) speaks a new variety of English which depends neither
on childhood acquisition nor cultural identity and is often used in communication in which no
native speaker is involved.
Considerable insight into changes in the distribution of English and our attitudes to its use
can be gained by tracing the history of English Language Teaching (ELT)
 Ch4
Discuss the principle of grammar-translation language teaching .
1- Grammar rules were explained to the student in their own language.
2- Vocabulary lists were learned with translation equivalents.
3- Sentences especially constructed to contain only the grammar and vocabulary which had
already been covered were laboriously translated, in writing into out the student’s first
language.
4- Success was measured in terms of the accurate use of grammar and vocabulary rather
than effective communication.
5- Using the language meant written translation.
6- There was no emphasis on the development of fluent speech.
7- It was assumed that the processes of learning the language and eventual use of it could
be disassociated.

The reason for the Direct method. Or the history of this approach.
1- There was continuing mass immigration, by speakers of many different languages into the
USA
2- There was growing international trade and tourism and an increase in both vocational and
recreational language learning
Discuss the Direct method.
1- There was continuing mass immigration, by speakers of many different languages into the
USA
2- There was growing international trade and tourism and an increase in both vocational and
recreational language learning
3- The student did not necessarily share the same first language
4- It is simply impossible for the instruction to proceed though first-language explanation and
translation.
5- The students needed spoken as well as written language, and they needed it fast.
Direct method in which the students’ own language were banished and everything was to
be done through the language under instruction.
How was success measured in the direct method?
1- The direct method established a concept of language learning very different from that
implicit in grammar-translation.
2- Success was to be measured instead by the degree to which the learner’s language
proficiency approximated that native speaker.
3- This led to further changes in both popular and applied linguistics ideas about how a
language might be learned.
The early method had been a revolution, but not a complete one, discuss that.
1- Many of the characteristics of grammar-translation had survived, e.g. there was still
explanation and grading of grammar rules, and the language was divided into discrete areas
such as vocabulary or pronunciation practice.
2- Teachers had to do much as they had done before, but without recourse to either
first-language explanation or translation.
3- In practice, grammar rules had to be worked out by students from example, because an
explanation would demand language beyond the level of the rule being explained.
4- The meaning of new vocabulary had to be either guessable from context, or perhaps
illustrated or mimed.
Natural approach definition The idea was that learning would take place without
explanation or grading, and without correction of errors, but simply by exposure to
‘meaningful input’
The only principal for natural approach:
The approach was culturally insensitive: it was developed in the USA and then exported as
globally relevant without regard to differing educational traditions or language-learning
context.

CLT Natural approach

primarily social essentially psychological

What is the essence of CLT?

The essence is a shift of attention from the language system as end in itself to the
successful use of that system in context, that is to say from an emphasis on form’’grammar,
vocabulary, and pronunciation’ to an emphasis on communication.
Discuss the communicative language teaching: or how success was measured in this
approach?
1- shift of attention from the language system as end in itself to the successful use of that
system in context,
2- Language-learning success is to be assessed by the ability to do things with the
language, appropriately, fluently, and effectively.
3- Communicative pedagogy shifted its attention from the teaching and practice of grammar
and pronunciation rules, and the learning of vocabulary lists, to communicative activities” like
tell story’.
Macro level syllabus and curriculum design, at the macro level there has been the
development of language for specific purposes English for specific Purposes (ESP) which
tries to develop the language and discourse skills which will be needed for particular jobs
(English for Occupational Purposes EOP) or for particular field of study (English for
Academic Purposes EAP).
Micro level classroom activity.
Task-Based instruction (TBI) Learning is organized around tasks related to real-world
activities, focusing the student’s attention upon meaning and upon successful task
completion.

Traditional approaches CLT

the emphasis was on formal practice the emphasis become quite different, which
‘’grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation’’ focus on effective communication

it was taught step by step it best handled all at one

The limitations of CLT. or disadvantage of CLT.

1- Communicative activities could lead to limited proficiency and a constraining and
conformist model of language use.
2- Concentration upon communicating meaning from the outset could lead to inaccurate
language use which uncorrected, could then fossilize.
Fossilize preventing the learner from further development for more complex use.

Ch5

What does it mean to know a language well and to use it successfully?

It depends who ask the question, and there are many answer.
Yet there are many cases where someone knows the rules of a language but is still not a
successful communicator.
Chomsky’s idea.
1- The human capacity for language, as illustrated by a child’s acquisition of the language
around them, is not the product of general intelligence or learning ability, but an innate,
genetically determined feature of the human species.
2- We are born with considerable pre-programmed knowledge of how language works, and
require only minimal exposure to activate.
In the chomsky view the newborn infant brain already contains a Universal Grammar
(UG) ‘’ the representation of the language in the mind’ which mean forms the basis of
competence in the particular language the child goes on to speak.
If we accept Chomsky’s view, language, as an object of academic enquiry something
more biological than social. discuss.
1- Similarities between languages outweigh differences.
2- Language is separated from other factors involved in its use such as body language or
culture knowledge.
3- Valid for certain purposes in linguistics
4- When invoked in applied linguistics, can have a reductive and constraining effect,
excluding from consideration those very factors which the discipline the most concerned.
What is needed for successful communication, Hymes suggested is four types of
knowledge: possibility, feasibility, appropriateness, and attestedness.
1- possibility. Knowledge of possibility is not sufficient in itself for communication
2- feasible, a psychological concept concerned with limitations to what can be processed by
the mind, and is best illustrated by an example. The rules of English grammar make it
possible to expand a noun phrase.
3- Knowledge of appropriateness concerns the relationship of language or behavior to
context. E.g. 1- inappropriate to a particular relationship(calling a police officer ‘darling’) 2- to
a particular kind of text ( using slang in a formal letter) 3- to a particular situation (answering
a phone call during a funeral) 4- to a particular culture (not showing deference to the elderly)
4- attestedness for example (chips and fish) is possible and feasible and appropriate, but it
does not occur as frequently ( fish and chips). In the 1970s, Hymes' ideas attracted attention,
there was no easy way to say what uses did actually occur other than by laborious checking
of texts and transcription.
Corpus linguistics uses computerized techniques for searching large databanks, has made
available much more information about probability.