THE GROWTH OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Conclusions
Since the 1950s applied linguistics has spread widely. There are now some thirty-five national affiliates of AILA, and applied linguistics is taught as an academic discipline throughout the world. As Brumfit remarks it is now very varied, ranging from an engagement with the isms of critical analysis and postmodernisms (gender, development, multiculturalism, poverty and racism), to a general deconstruction of existing paternalist universalisms, to the focusing on one linguistic theory and, its opposite, to the emphasis on contrastive analysis and a concern with teaching methodology.
The professionalizing of applied linguistics in this period has inevitably raised the issue of coherence. Should we expect graduates in applied linguistics from different universities to have followed the same courses? The answer is surely no for content but yes for concept. The three basic concepts are: language use, language learning and investigating (or researching) the using and the learning. These concepts are where coherence lies.
Successful development of the profession of applied linguistics is closely linked to its insistence on maintaining a balance between source and target. Given the absence in applied linguistics of sanctions (nobody can be prevented from claiming to be an applied linguist, however unqualified and unprincipled), applied linguists offer one another the support and the scrutiny of an ‘ethical milieu’ (Homan 1991). The tension between theory and practice in applied linguistics, between complexifying and simplifying has always existed. Tensions, of course, suggest that balance is to be found somewhere between. The attraction of applied linguistics is precisely that it is a theorizing activity, moving from practice to theory, janus-like, offering a framework for explanation and a blueprint for action.
