Applied linguistics is a broadly interdisciplinary field concerned
with promoting our understanding of the role language plays in
human life. At its centre are theoretical and empirical
investigations of real-world issues in which lang uage plays a
leading role. Applied linguistics focuses on the relationship
between theory and practice, using the insights gained from the
theory-practice interface for solving language-related problems
in a principled way.
Applied linguistics is not ‘linguistics applied’, because it
deals with many more issues than purely linguistic ones, and
because disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnography, anthropology, educationa
research, communication and media studies also inform applied linguistic research. The
result is a broad spectrum of themes in applied linguistics such as first, second and fo
language learning and teaching, bilingualism and multilingualism, discourse analysis,
translation and interpreting, language policy and language planning, research
methodology, language testing, stylistics, literature,