Appraisal psychology, neurobiology, and language

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Schumann

This volume of The Annual Review of Applied Linguistics explores the connections between psychology and language. In the following chapter, I will show how a field that increasingly informs psychology can also inform the psychological issues that concern applied linguists. Neurobiology and psychology have become more closely integrated in recent years as evidenced by the emergence and development of such disciplinary interfaces as biopsychology and cognitive neuroscience. The recognition that psychological phenomena are subserved by the brain is widely accepted; via developments in neuroimaging technology, the brain is becoming amenable to direct psychological investigation. In this chapter, I examine brain mechanisms that are involved in second language acquisition motivation, in cognitive/motor exploratory activity in learning, and in decision-making aspects of pragmatics in language use.

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-210

04–413 Biber, Douglas and Cortes, Viviana (Northern Arizona U., USA). If you look at…: lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics (Oxford, UK), 25, 3 (2004), 371–405.04–414 Davies, C. E. (U. of Alabama, USA), Developing awareness of crosscultural pragmatics: The case of American/German sociable interactionMultilingua (Berlin, Germany), 23, 3 (2004), 207–231.04–415 Kaufman, Dorit.Constructivist issues in language learning and teaching. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK), 24 (2004), 303–319.04–416 Kern, Richard, Ware, Paige and Warschauer, Mark. Crossing frontiers: new directions in online pedagogy and research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge, UK), 24 (2004), 243–260.04–417 Liszka, S. A. (U. of London, UK; Email: [email protected]). Exploring the effects of first language influence on second language pragmatic processes from a syntactic deficit perspective. Second Language Research (London,UK), 20, 3 (2004), 212–231.04–418 McArthur, T. Is it world or international or globalEnglish, and does it matter?English Today (Cambridge, UK), 20, 3 (2004), 3–15.04–419 Ying, H. G. (U. of Colorado at Denver, USA; Email: [email protected]). Relevance mapping: a study of second language learners' processing of syntactically ambiguous sentences in English. Second Language Research (London,UK), 20, 3 (2004), 232–255.04–420 Zegarac, V. (U. of Luton, UK; Email: [email protected]). Relevance Theory andthein second language acquisition. Second Language Research (London, UK), 20, 3 (2004), 193–211.


2005 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. vii-xi
Author(s):  
Mary McGroarty

It is a sign of overweening ambition if not hubris to think that all of applied linguistics can fit between two covers. Dynamic even when the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) began publication in 1981, applied linguistics has continued to change, grow, and redefine its areas of coverage, even as many other journals have emerged in the intervening 25 years. Writing in the 20th anniversary issue of ARAL, my editorial predecessors, Robert Kaplan and William Grabe, provide the historical context for the establishment of ARAL and show how it came to fit into the context of applied linguistics as the field evolved from the mid-20th century to the beginning of the 21st. They summarize the key notions that characterize applied linguistics and remark that it “commonly includes a core set of issues and practices that are readily identified as work done by many applied linguists (language teaching, language teacher preparation, and language curriculum development)” along with “several further identifiable subfields of study: bilingual studies, corpus linguistics, forensic linguistics, language contact studies, language testing, language translation and interpretation, language use in professional contexts, lexicography and dictionary making, literacy, second language acquisition, and second language writing research” (Kaplan & Grabe, 2000, p. 5). The variety and diversity of these subfields defy attempts to gather them into a single volume (although some useful recent handbooks have done so; see, for example, Davies & Elder, 2004; Kaplan, 2002); furthermore, at present, topics in applied linguistics are commonly addressed through entire handbooks for particular subfields (Bhatia & Ritchie, 2004; Doughty & Long, 2003; Spolsky, 1999) or even in multivolume sets such as the Encyclopedia of Language and Education (Corson, 1997). Hence, this year's volume should perhaps be labeled a ‘selective’ survey, or even a sampling of the field, rather than an exhaustive inventory of all possible endeavors that warrant inclusion within applied linguistics. The present volume features research on some of the perennial concerns of applied linguistics, akin to Kaplan and Grabe's ‘core issues.’


1989 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. vii-xi
Author(s):  
Robert B. Kaplan

This tenth volume of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) concerns itself with a survey of applied linguistics broadly, as this series did in volume I and volume V. The changes which have occurred in the field generally over the past decade are impressive; indeed, a volume such as this one would have been quite impossible ten years ago. Some of the topics covered in this volume are ones to which this series has repeatedly returned—e.g., language planning, language-in-education planning, bilingualism; others are unique to this volume—e.g., language and aging, and still others represent sub-fields which have been treated previously but which have expanded significantly in the years since volume I was published—e.g., second-language acquisition, language testing.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 102-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Winke

In this chapter, I review a statistical method for hypothesis or theory testing calledstructural equation modeling(SEM). First, I describe what a model of second language acquisition (SLA) is. I do this so anyone, even those new to the field of applied linguistics, can understand the basic concepts underlying SEM; that is, SEM researchers first articulate a model of SLA, then get empirical data from the real world that operationalize the variables in the model. Researchers use an SEM program to test the model on the data (to see if the model fits the data; if the model is plausible in relation to the learning context of the people from whom the data were collected). After explaining the basics of SEM, I provide a review of 39 applied linguistics studies that have been published in the last five years (between 2008 and 2013) and that present at least one SEM analysis as part of the results. I discuss four problematic areas related to the use of SEM that I believe these 39 studies highlighted: (a) sample size, (b) model presentation, (c) reliability, and (d) the number of Likert-scale points. I conclude with possible solutions for the four problem areas and outline future directions.


1999 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
William Grabe

This nineteenth volume of ARAL returns to a general overview of Applied Linguistics. While a wide range of topics could be covered in an overview volume, three major topics are addressed in some depth: second language acquisition, language use in professional contexts, and language assessment. These chapters complement and extend the chapters that appeared in ARAL 15, which used a similar organizing framework.


English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Burrows

ABSTRACTA study of the need for attention to cultural aspects of task-based learning and teaching of English as a foreign language. In recent years applied linguistics has seen a move away from a linguistic syllabus to one built around the sequencing of real-life, communicative tasks. This shift, it is argued, offers a richer exposure to language use, while providing the motivation required for students to build on their existing language repertoire. Proponents claim this use of the language satisfies what is known about second language acquisition, by furnishing contexts that make the learning process closer to real-life language situations, as: ‘People of all ages learn languages best, inside or outside a classroom, by not treating the languages as an object of study, but by experiencing them as a medium of communication.’ (Long & Robinson, 1998:18)


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 199-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merrill Swain

This review chapter addresses two questions: What has the recent research conducted in French immersion programs in Canada contributed to our understanding of second language acquisition (SLA)? What has it contributed to the broader field of applied linguistics? In this chapter, I also consider briefly what the research contributions of the coming decade might be and discuss some of the obstacles that may be faced in Canada in continuing to conduct research concerned with French immersion education.


2016 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Mackey

To begin with some history, reflecting the breadth of the field, the 35 issues of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) published since 1980 have covered a substantial range of topics. These have included broad surveys of the field of applied linguistics; language and language-in-education; identity; written discourse; literacy; bilingual communities worldwide; language and the professions; communicative language teaching; second language acquisition research; discourse analysis; issues in foreign language teaching and learning; language policy and planning; technology and language; multilingualism; foundations of second language teaching; applied linguistics as an emerging discipline; language and psychology; discourse and dialogue; language contact and change; advances in language pedagogy; lingua franca languages; neurolinguistics; cognitive aspects of language processing; language assessment; and formulaic language.


2010 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. vi-vii
Author(s):  
Charlene Polio

This issue is my first edited volume of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL). Each year ARAL focuses on a specific theme, but about every five years it covers a range of mostly unrelated topics in a survey issue. Volume 30 was scheduled to be a survey issue, and after some discussion with the editorial directors, I decided to keep this tradition. Thus, I had the daunting task of choosing four broad topics, and then within each broad topic, a few narrow topics on which to invite scholars to write review articles. I chose a wide range of areas as a statement that I see the field of applied linguistics as not only being broad but as also representing a range of perspectives on theory and research methods. For example, I have included sections both on language socialization and on linguistic theory (mostly formal) in second language acquisition. I felt that these two areas were quite far apart with regard to the view that researchers in those areas held, but in my mind, both social and cognitive approaches to language learning and use are valid and simply seek to answer different questions. In the section on research methods, the articles focus on using both cognitive and social approaches, as well as quantitative and qualitative methods. The articles on heritage language learning focus on acquisition, policy, pedagogy, and sociocultural issues.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document