Applied Linguistics
The area of linguistics known as applied linguistics covers a number of different areas and can be challenging to define; even for those that practice it. Applied linguists may create a dictionary, they may develop programs to teach foreign languages, they may create protocols for speech pathology, and they invariably do considerably more. Most … Keep Reading → people define applied linguistics as the part of linguistics that takes the theory and analysis and uses it in the real world; often to instruct or educate. Because applied linguistics is so intimately connected with real world applications of linguistic theory, it inevitably branches outside of pure linguistics into areas such as psychology and sociology. Economic and political realities must also be considered in all applied linguistics analysis. Because of these factors, applied linguistics is more of an interdisciplinary science than most other areas of linguistics. It doesn’t operate in a vacuum, but rather with a specific purpose.
