An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

Citation

Schmitt, N., & Rodgers, M. P. H. (Eds.). (2020). An Introduction to Applied Linguistics (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

This is an edited volume of about 400 pages. After a short preface and an overview chapter, seventeen chapters by different specialists are grouped into three parts: the description of language and language use, essential areas of enquiry, and language skills and assessment. A final chapter gives suggested solutions to the activities. The publisher states that every chapter has hands-on activities and further reading sections, and that the references are revised for each chapter.

Chapter 1: An Overview of Applied Linguistics

By Norbert Schmitt and Marianne Celce-Murcia. According to the publisher, this introductory chapter familiarises readers with key issues and recurrent themes of the field before the specialist chapters begin.

Part 1: Description of Language and Language Use (Chapters 2–6)

The first part covers five areas that describe the object of study. The chapters are Grammar (Diane Larsen-Freeman and Jeanette DeCarrico), Vocabulary (Paul Nation and Paul Meara), Discourse Analysis (Michael McCarthy, Christian Matthiessen and Diana Slade), Pragmatics (Helen Spencer-Oatey and Vladimir Žegarac) and Corpus Linguistics (Randi Reppen and Rita Simpson-Vlach). Together they move from word and sentence level to language in use and to the corpus methods by which usage is investigated.

Part 2: Essential Areas of Enquiry in Applied Linguistics (Chapters 7–12)

The second part collects areas of enquiry on how languages are learned, processed in the mind and used in society, along with language and the law. Its chapters are Second Language Acquisition (Nina Spada and Patsy M. Lightbown), Psycholinguistics (Emily Mech, Andrea Takahesu-Tabori, Judith F. Kroll and Kees de Bot), Sociolinguistics (Carmen Llamas and Peter Stockwell), Focus on the Language Learner: Styles, Strategies and Motivation (Andrew D. Cohen and Alastair Henry), Forensic Linguistics and Language and the Law (Tatiana Tkacukova) and Multilingualism (Shelley Taylor). The publisher notes that the chapters on forensic linguistics and multilingualism are new to the third edition, and that the chapters on psycholinguistics and language learners were rewritten.

Part 3: Language Skills and Assessment (Chapters 13–17)

The third part deals with the four skills and with testing: Listening (Tony Lynch and David Mendelsohn), Speaking and Pronunciation (Anne Burns and Barbara Seidlhofer), Reading (Xiangying Jiang, William Grabe and Patricia L. Carrell), Writing (Paul Kei Matsuda and Tony Silva) and Assessment (Carol A. Chapelle, Benjamin Kremmel and Geoff Brindley). The reading and assessment chapters were rewritten for this edition, according to the publisher.

Chapter 18: Suggested Solutions

The final chapter, before the references and index, supplies suggested solutions, which the reader can compare with their own answers to the activities in the preceding chapters.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: An Overview of Applied Linguistics

• Key issues and recurrent themes: the publisher says the overview familiarises readers with these before the topic chapters.

Part 1: Description of Language and Language Use

• Grammar and vocabulary: the two chapters that describe the structure and the lexicon of language as applied linguists approach them.
• Discourse analysis and pragmatics: the study of language beyond the sentence and of meaning in context.
• Corpus linguistics: the use of large collections of authentic text to study how language is used.

Part 2: Essential Areas of Enquiry

• Second language acquisition and psycholinguistics: research on how additional languages are learned and how language is processed in the mind.
• Sociolinguistics and multilingualism: language in relation to society and to speakers of more than one language.
• Learner styles, strategies and motivation: the individual differences treated in the chapter on the language learner.
• Forensic linguistics: language and the law, a new chapter in this edition.

Part 3: Language Skills and Assessment

• Listening, speaking and pronunciation, reading and writing: the four skills, each with its own chapter.
• Assessment: the testing of language ability, the last of the topic chapters.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth in a single volume. The book surveys seventeen areas, from grammar and vocabulary to forensic linguistics and assessment, and each chapter has its own named specialist authors, for example Nation and Meara on vocabulary and Spada and Lightbown on second language acquisition. The publisher calls it a complete, authoritative and up-to-date overview of the field.
• Practical apparatus. Each chapter has hands-on activities and further reading, and the final chapter provides suggested solutions, so the book can be used for independent study as well as for a taught course.
• A course-shaped structure. The three parts (describing language, areas of enquiry, skills and assessment) make it easy to select the parts a course needs, and the opening overview is there to prepare newcomers for the specialist chapters.
• Updated for the third edition. New chapters on multilingualism and forensic linguistics, rewritten chapters on psycholinguistics, language learners, reading and assessment, and refreshed references. Sara T. Cushing (Georgia State University), quoted by the publisher, recommends the book for newcomers and established scholars and welcomes these updates.

Limitations

• Survey depth. With about eighteen chapters in roughly 400 pages, each area gets a single chapter, and none is a full treatment. A reader who wants depth in second language acquisition, for example, will go on to a dedicated book.
• Uneven voice. The chapters have more than thirty different authors, so style, difficulty and the amount of practical material are likely to vary from chapter to chapter.
• Orientation toward language teaching and learning. Several chapters (vocabulary, learner styles, the four skills, assessment) are framed around language learning and teaching. Readers interested in other applications will find forensic linguistics and multilingualism, but the contents list no chapter on a topic such as translation.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the broadest and most up-to-date overview in the applied linguistics course list. Hunston and Oakey's Introducing Applied Linguistics: Concepts and Skills is also an edited introduction, with short chapters on core areas followed by study skills for reading, researching and writing in the field; it is a gentler entry point, and its skills section complements Schmitt and Rodgers, which has no equivalent.

Lightbown and Spada's How Languages Are Learned is a short, accessible introduction to second language learning and can be read alongside Chapter 7, which is by the same two authors, and Chapter 10. For more depth on second language acquisition after this book, Brown and Lee's Principles of Language Learning and Teaching is written for teachers and traces the main theories, VanPatten, Keating and Wulff's Theories in Second Language Acquisition presents each theory through a researcher associated with it, and Rod Ellis's The Study of Second Language Acquisition is a comprehensive reference.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at students of applied linguistics, TESOL and second language pedagogy, and at practising teachers and researchers wishing to update their knowledge. An introductory linguistics course is helpful; Chapter 1 is written for newcomers.

A practical plan: read Chapter 1 first, then choose chapters by purpose. For a first course, Chapters 2 to 5 and 7 give the core descriptive and acquisition background. For work on teaching, add the chapters on the language learner, the four skills and assessment (Chapters 10 and 13 to 17). Corpus linguistics (Chapter 6) is useful before any data-driven project. The forensic linguistics and multilingualism chapters (Chapters 11 and 12) can be read independently.

Do the activities in each chapter and compare your answers with Chapter 18 where solutions are given. Use the further reading lists to choose a specialist book once a topic interests you, and the reference list of each chapter as a starting point for a literature search.