Role:
Applied linguistics is often said to be concerned with solving or at least ameliorating social problems involving language. This tradition of applied linguistics established itself in part as a response to the narrowing of focus in linguistics with the advent in the late 1950s of generative linguistics, and has always maintained a socially accountable role, demonstrated by its central interest in language problems. But there is another tradition of applied linguistics, which belongs to linguistics it is sometimes called Linguistics-Applied (L-A) but perhaps “applications of linguistics” would be a more appropriate title for this tradition. For the most part, those who write about applied linguistics accept that the label “applied linguistics” refers to language teaching (in its widest Interpretation, therefore including speech therapy, translation and interpreting studies, language planning, etc.) In the 1990s, the journal seems to have finally accepted the broader church that represents an Applied-Linguistics (A-L) as distinct from Linguistics applied approach to language problems. The 1993 editors acknowledge “thewide range of foundation theories and research methodologies now used to study language issues.” And they state that they intend to: encourage the submission of more manuscripts from:
(a) Diverse disciplines, including applications of methods and theories from linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive science, ethnography, ethnomethodology. Sociolinguistics, sociology, semiotics, educational inquiry, and cultural or historical studies, to address:
(b) Fundamental issues in language learning, such as bilingualism, language acquisition, second and foreign language education, literacy, culture, cognition, pragmatics, and intergroup relations.
