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Important definitions of Applied Linguistics :

The term Applied linguistics came into existence in the 1940' s through the effects of
teachers who wished to ally themselves with scientific linguistics and to diassociate
themselves from teachers of literature.By the mid-1950's ,the term was given credence by the
opening of the School of Applied Linguistics at the university of Edinburgh and by the
creation of the center for applied linguistics in the United States .Finally ,in the 1970' s ,the
field was given scope and substance by the publictaion of Introducing Applied Linguistics by
Spit Corder (1973).
Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that adresses a broad range of
language -related issues in order to understand their roles in the lives of individuals and
conditions in society .It draws on a wide range of theoritical and methodological approaches
from various disciplines from humanties to the social and natural sciences as it develops its
own knowledge base about language ,its users and uses,and their underlying social and
material conditions.
Brumfit defined applied linguistics as :"The theoritical and empirical investigation of real
world problems in which language is a central issue ".
Strevens said that "Applied linguistics is a technology which makes abstract ideas and
research findings accessible and relevant to the real world ,it mediates between theory and
practice ".
Another important definition was mentioned by Cook and Wei that "applied linguistic is an
interdisciplianry field of research and practice dealing with practical problems of language
and communication that can be identified ,analysed ,or solved by applynig available theories
and methods or result of linguistics".
David Crystal defined applied linguistics as "the use of linguistic theories ,methods and
findings in solving problems to do with language which have arisen in other area of
experience".
Guy Cook stated that the term Al "is the academic discipline concerned with the realtion of
knowledge about language to decision making in real word ".On the basis of this definitions
we can say that applied linguistics sets out to investigate problems in the world in which
language is implicated both educational and social problems .
Schimitt and Celce Muricia "Applied linguistics is using what we know about language ,how
it is learned ,and how it is used in order to achieve some purpose or solve some problems in
the real world ".
Grable argued that "The focus of applied linguistics is on trying to resolve language based
problems that people encounter in the real world ".
Politzes belived that "Appled linguistics is simply the process of formulating possible
solutions to specific problems ".
In contrast to all these definitions Kaplan stated that "Applied linguistics is a difficult notion
to define".In Kaplan's definition applied linguists have repeatedly argued that their field is not
merly linguistic applied but rather is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary.
Also ,Vivian Cook "Applied linguistics does not lead itself to any easy definition " this means
that applied linguistics means many things to many people .

The scope of AL (the main subfields of applied linguistics ) :

1-Language acquistion
2-Teaching and learning foreing language :
a-Improving teaching methodology
b- Improving syllabuses
3-Language assessment : the assessmnet and evaluation of language achievements and
profficiency for both general and specific purposes.
4- Translation studies and interpretation : the issues of equivalence between SL and TL ,and
the practices of translating written text and interpretting spoken language .
5-Lexicography : methods and techniques for creating dictionairies .
6- Forensic linguistics(language, work and law): how linguistic knowledge is used in crime
investigation and finding evidence , and communication in the workplace .
7-Psycholinguistics : the study of the psychological factors which can enable students to
acquire and understand the language well.
8-Sociolinguistics :studies about the realtionship between the society and language ,and
explore /solve the problem realted to society that affects the langauge ,varieties of language in
society.
9-Literacy stylistics : the study of relationship between linguistic choices and effects in
literature.
10-Critical discourse analysis : the study of the relationship between linguistic choices and
effects in persuasive uses of language of how these indoctrinate or manipulate for example in
marketing and politics and the counteracting of this through analysis .
11-Also applied liguistics is conecred with :language and culture ,language and technology
(computer programming ),anthropology, ,nuerolinguistics.
Characterestics of applied linguistics :
1-It is a problem based : applied linguistics is grouned in real world language driven
problems and issues primarly linked by practical matters involving language use ,language
evaluation,language contact,and multilingualism ,language policies ,and language learning
and teaching.There is also however ,the recognition that these practically driven problems
have extraordinary range.
2-Applied linguistics is interdisciplinary :it incorporates other disciplinary knowledge beyond
linguistics in its efforts to address langauge based problems.Applied linguists commonly
draw upon and are often well trained in areas of anthropology,computer programming
,education ,economics ,English, literature ,measurement,political scinece ,education,rhetoric
,psycholology ,or sociology .So it is not limited only to language teaching.
3- Applied linguistics generally includes several identifiable subfields :for example,corpus
linguistics ,forensic linguistics,language testing,language policy and planning
,lexicography,second language acquisition,second language writing ,and transaltion.
4-Contextualized language use.
5-Applied linguistics functions between theory and practice.

Conttroversies about AL :
Because there is no stricted definition of applied linguistics and it is an interdisciplinary so it
is very difficult to know about all the disciplines .It is ostensive area.

Conclusion :