Applied Linguistics as Social Science
The aim here is to make a case for regarding the discipline of applied linguistics as a social science. This requires a theory of language and a view of social analysis as social science, both of which we attempt to provide. 'Applied linguistics' is construed here very inclusively, to refer to those areas of language description and analysis which locate language itself within the social world, and which understand language use as a form of social practice. The social theory on which we draw allows us to describe issues in applied linguistics with reference to the properties and powers of language and of language users. The concept of properties and powers is associated with some developments in contemporary social theory which are broadly identified as 'social realism'. A central feature of this approach is to argue that the social world consists of different kinds of things: namely human beings and the products of their interactions, which are social relations and cultural creations. The idea that each of these has distinctive properties and powers will be explored in detail. Our argument includes the proposition that a social scientific account of applied linguistics helps to explain the interaction between these different kinds of things: social structures, human agents and language. We suggest that some aspects of linguistic behavior are more accurately described with the aid of insights from social science disciplines other than those which are primarily concerned with language. What we have tried to do is to illuminate questions and topics which are of concern to applied linguists with reference to such insights, without losing sight of what is distinctive about language itself and not reducible to any other dimension of the social world.
Social theory and applied linguistics, then, share some common areas of interest, although the concepts used by each to discuss these have their own emphases and history. We shall be considering what each discipline can contribute to our understanding of a number of key questions in the social sciences. Both disciplines are, in effect, concerned with ways of knowing the social world. In pursuit of this, each deals with a range of objects of knowledge. That is, each makes claims about: what exists in the social world (ontological claims); to what extent and in what ways these objects can be known about (epistemological claims); and the appropriate methods for achieving that knowledge (methodological claims). Any proposition about the world will entail engagement with all three sorts of claim- although these are not always made explicit. Moreover, most kinds of knowledge are linguistically mediated. This accounts for the unique status of language, as both an object of knowledge and the means by which that knowledge is comprehended, expressed and discussed. Thus, none of the social sciences can avoid a concern with language. Conversely, as we have suggested already, applied linguistics cannot escape involvement with social theory.
In recent years, most of the social sciences have turned their attention to the study of language in social life, and various approaches to the analysis of discourse have been developed beyond linguistics itself. While we obviously believe that both disciplines can benefit from this exchange, we also want to delineate their respective boundaries, and maintain a commitment to the distinction between different forms of knowledge and appropriate ways of accessing these. In other words, we are wary of 'linguistifying' social theory, as well as of 'sociologizing' applied linguistics.
