scholarly journals EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

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.’

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.


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.


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.


Via Latgalica ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Sanita Lazdiņa

The objective of the paper is to illuminate the interpretation of the term „Applied Linguistics” in Latvia and abroad (in Western Europe, the USA and Russia), and thereby identifying possibilities and grounds for the research of Latvian as a second language in the context of the development of applied linguistics in Latvia. Apart from theoretical literature, the author also uses data from observations of classroom discussions, which were obtained in three secondary schools and one elementary school (two schools in Rezekne, one in Rezekne region and one in Balvi). The author of the paper conducted a discourse research of Grade 9 pupils who learn Latvian as a second language (LAT 2). These research data are also important for problems of the development of methodology of applied linguistics in Latvia, because they enable the identification of new data and research methods. Applied linguistics as a field is based on the research of language and its role in human activities. Modern research of applied linguistics in Western Europe shows that attention is paid to areas such as second language acquisition (SLA), cognition, language policy and planning, lexicography, translation theory, corpus linguistics, etc. In Russia, when defining the areas and functions of applied linguistics, emphasize is put on the close connection of linguistics with information technology, artificial intelligence and logics. Russian linguists link the emergence of applied linguistics to the development of science and technology, which have made it necessary to observe language in action. The term „Applied Linguistics” is usually opposed to theoretical linguistics, which studies language in a system under a particular condition. To identify the interpretation of the term „Applied Linguistics” in Latvia, two sources were used for the paper: The „Interpretative Dictionary of Basic Terms of Linguistics” (IDBTL), published in 2007, and the description of the branches and sub-branches of science available on the home page of the Latvian Council of Science (LCS). The comparison of these sources reveals two differences in the definition of „applied linguistics”. IDBTL does not mention sociolinguistics among the areas of applied linguistics. Sociolinguistics is mentioned separately in the dictionary, but there is no link to applied linguistics. The second difference is that IDBTL does not refer to language teaching or learning – neither in the definition of applied linguistics, nor in the description of its areas, whereas it is mentioned in the LCS description of sub-branches. These findings show a lack of consistency in introducing the problem of second language acquisition into the context of the development of applied linguistics. The second part of the paper gives an insight into the research of the Latvian language as a second language. The research data were obtained through structural observations of class discourse and by analyzing them with the help of check lists and tables. The data of the class discourse research is important for the research of the actual situation of language acquisition. The task of an applied linguist is to be a mediator between the theory of linguistics and language pedagogy (linguodidactics). Even for studying problems of mastering the Latvian language as a second language, there is still a lack of systemic research which would provide a deeper analysis of the difficulties that LAT2 pupils deal with while learning Latvian, as well as while studying other subjects bilingually or in Latvian. There is an on-going need for class discourse research and for research of a individual language acquisition processes by means of interviews, questionnaires, and pupils’ reports about the accomplishment of some cognitive or linguistic tasks, as well as by other methods.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-113
Author(s):  
Farrah Neumann ◽  
Matthew Kanwit

AbstractSince many linguistic structures are variable (i. e. conveyed by multiple forms), building a second-language grammar critically involves developing sociolinguistic competence (Canale and Swain. 1980. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1). 1–47), including knowledge of contexts in which to use one form over another (Bayley and Langman. 2004. Variation in the group and the individual: Evidence from second language acquisition. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 42(4). 303–318). Consequently, researchers interested in such competence have increasingly analyzed the study-abroad context to gauge learners’ ability to approximate local norms following a stay abroad, due to the quality and quantity of input to which learners may gain access (Lafford. 2006. The effects of study abroad vs. classroom contexts on Spanish SLA: Old assumptions, new insights and future research directions. In Carol Klee & Timothy Face (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 7th conference on the acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as first and second languages, 1–25. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project). Nevertheless, the present study is the first to examine native or learner variation between imperative (e. g. ven ‘come’) and optative Spanish commands (e. g. que vengas ‘come’). We first performed a corpus analysis to determine the linguistic factors to manipulate in a contextualized task, which elicited commands from learners before and after four weeks abroad in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Their overall rates of selection and predictive factors were compared to local native speakers (NSs) and a control group of at-home learners.Results revealed that the abroad learners more closely approached NS rates of selection following the stay abroad. Nonetheless, for both learner groups conditioning by independent variables only partially approximated the NS system, which was more complex than previously suggested.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 111-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick C. Ellis ◽  
Teresa Cadierno

This Special Section brings together researchers who adopt a constructional approach to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as informed by Cognitive and Corpus Linguistics, approaches which fall under the general umbrella of Usage-based Linguistics. The articles present psycholinguistic and corpus linguistic evidence for L2 constructions and for the inseparability of lexis and grammar. They consider the psycholinguistics of language learning following general cognitive principles of category learning, with schematic constructions emerging from usage. They analyze how learning is driven by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within construction, the salience of their form, the significance of their functional interpretation, the match of their meaning to the construction prototype, and the reliability of their mappings. They explore conceptual transfer and the acquisition of second language meaning. They consider the implications of these phenomena for L2 instruction.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1560-1574
Author(s):  
Aicha Rahal

The discipline of World Englishes has been one of the most thriving branches of English linguistics. This branch has become the focal focus of considerable debate. The chapter mainly aims to show the multilingual reality of English. It is an attempt to answer the question “Do we have English or Englishes?” The chapter tries to study the recent situation of English as a lingua franca. It first gives an overview of the spread of English and the emergence of new Englishes. Then, it presents the principals of traditional applied linguistics and second language acquisition. It also discusses the concepts of World Englishes, multilingualism, and pluralism. After that, the chapter presents the World Englishes debate to show the gap between monocentrists and pluralists. Finally, the study sheds light on the fact that Englishes reflect the multilingual reality of English.


1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Wang

Although considerable evidence indicates that age of onset for second language acquisition is related to second-language proficiency outcomes among adult learners Jew studies have actually looked at how adult learners of different ages experience and perceive second language acquisition. This study presents 30 women immigrant learners' accounts of their experiences and perceptions of learning English as a second language in the Canadian context. Findings from this study reveal the complexity of adult L2 acquisition, which involves factors pertaining not only to the learners themselves, but also to the social context in which the second language is learned. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the second language curriculum development and classroom practice.


1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-213
Author(s):  
Christopher Stroud

This article explores briefly some phenomena of potential indigenization of the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. Data for the study has been taken from work that is currently underway in Maputo, Mozambique, that was originally initiated to investigate contact varieties of Portuguese and to probe their educational implications. Speech samples comprise formal interviews and non-formal encounters from a socio-demographically representative sample of informants. The article first provides an inventory of some non-standard European Portuguese variants that are found in this data, and subsequently focusses upon a discussion of what contribution different linguistic processes make to indigenization, specifically the role played by processes of second language acquisition in a context of massive and diffuse language contact and change. Special attention is also paid to the social contexts in which different manifestations of language contact are found, and the importance of linguistic ideology for the form that language contact takes in particular cases is explored. The article concludes with the suggestion that the salient characteristics of types of non-native speech community such as Maputo require a reconceptualization of models and methods of contact linguistics and second language acquisition, and that this in turn carries implications for the terms of reference and analysis to which indigenization need be related.


Author(s):  
Rajend Mesthrie

Although areas of potential overlap between the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and World Englishes (WE) may seem obvious, they developed historically in isolation from each other. SLA had a psycholinguistic emphasis, studying the ways in which individuals progressed towards acquisition of a target language. WE studies initially developed a sociolinguistic focus, describing varieties that arose as second languages in former British colonies. This chapter explores the way in which each field could benefit from the other. The SLA emphasis on routes of development, overgeneralization, universals of SLA, and transfer in the interlanguage has relevance to characterizing sub-varieties of WEs. Conversely, the socio-political dimension of early WE studies and the notion of macro- or group acquisition fills a gap in SLA studies which sometimes failed to acknowledge that the goal of second language learners was to become bilingual in ways that were socially meaningful within their societies.


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