(ENG 360 and ENG 364)
Week 1
What is applied linguistics?
Applied Linguistics is a scholarly discipline dealing with the application of insights from both linguistics and other fields (such as anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, or education) to an understanding of how we learn , store , and use a second language or our native language. Linguistics deals, inter alia, with aspects of language itself (sounds, grammar, syntax), its variants, and with the processes used by human beings to process/store/retrieve information (psycholinguistics, in particular cognitive linguistics). It is impossible to separate the various strands of "pure" linguistics from other (sub)disciplines, but in general, applied linguistics may be said to deal primarily with issues in these fields:
 second language acquisition : e.g. theories of second language learning and acquisition, cognitive processes involved in learning and acquiring a second language in various educational contexts, second language learning in children and adults, language attrition, sociocultural theory and learning a second language, attitudes toward and motivation for learning a second language, learning strategies and styles;
 sociolinguistics : e.g. the impact of the social and cultural context in which a language is being used within a society, intercultural difference and second language learning and teaching, variation in language use;
 discourse analysis : e.g. communicative aspects of language use, structure of conversation, differences between native speakers' and non-native speakers' conversational style;
 bilingualism : e.g. code-switching, storage of multiple languages in the brain,
 issues of bilingual education; contrastive linguistics : e.g. comparative analysis of the phonological,
 semantic and grammatical features of a native tongue and a target language, or of any two languages or groups of languages; second language pedagogy : e.g. theories of second language teaching, intercultural didactics, linguistic aspects of computer-assisted language learning, psycholinguistic dimensions of curricular development.

What are Linguistics and Applied Linguistics about?
Linguistics is the study of human language in all its aspects. It provides a methodology for exploring the structure of particular languages; it investigates what is universal to all human languages: how languages are different, how language varies over time and between different societies, how language is learnt, and how language is used for human communication.
Applied Linguistics is concerned with practical issues involving language in the life of the community. The most important of these is the learning of second or foreign languages. Others include language policy, multilingualism, language education, the preservation and revival of endangered languages, and the assessment and treatment of language difficulties. Other areas of interest include professional communication, for example, between doctors and their patients, between lawyers and their clients and in courtrooms, as well as other areas of institutional and cross-cultural communication ranging from the boardroom to the routines on an answer-phone.
Linguistics and Applied Linguistics is inherently a multi-disciplinary study, drawing on methodologies and theories from many fields, including archaeology, psychology, anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, sociology, social theory, education, the mathematical sciences and computer science. Thus it has contributions to make to a range of study and professional practice areas.
Anyone can study Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. It is not necessary to know a language other than English, or to be good at learning languages, to do well in
Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. The field offers a rigorous intellectual training which stands one in good stead wherever clear, independent, creative thinking is valued. Applied Linguistics will be of particular interest to those studying second or foreign languages, and to anybody seriously interested in practical issues to do with communication in social contexts. It is also a useful general preparation for a career in second or foreign language teaching, including teaching English as a Foreign
Language (TEFL) or as a Second Language (TESL).
Linguistics and Applied Linguistics is a challenging and stimulating discipline, offering many opportunities for original work.
The questions that linguists ask are such as the following:
 How do linguistic structures relate to the sounds we utter, and how do these relate to the meanings that we express?

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What is the structure of these sounds, and how are they articulated?
What is the nature of the syntactic structure of a sentence, and how is a grammar correctly stated?
How can children master language as quickly as they do, even though the number of sentences appears to be infinitely many?
What does this remarkable capacity tell us about the mind?
How does human language differ from the communication systems of animals?
How does language change through time?
By what processes does a language diverse into two mutually incomprehensible languages, as did Latin into Rumanian and French?
In turn, how can the prehistory of a language be reconstructed?