Introducing Applied Linguistics: Concepts and Skills

Citation

Hunston, S., & Oakey, D. (Eds.). (2010). Introducing Applied Linguistics: Concepts and Skills. Routledge.

Chapter Summary

The book has about 270 pages and two sections. Section 1, "Key Concepts in Applied Linguistics", has twelve short chapters in three parts; Section 2, "Study Skills for Applied Linguistics Students", has ten chapters in four parts, followed by an answer key and an index. Chapters run to between 4 and 17 pages. The editors are Susan Hunston (University of Birmingham) and David Oakey (Iowa State University); the chapters are specially commissioned from contributors including Svenja Adolphs, Aileen Bloomer, Zoltán Dörnyei, Adrian Holliday, Alison Johnson, Chris Kennedy, Almut Koester, Ruby Macksoud, Kirsten Malmkjær, Kieran O'Halloran, Juup Stelma, Joan Swann, Geoff Thompson, Dave Willis, Jane Willis and David Woolls. The chapter titles below are those registered for the published chapters; the publisher's online contents list gives shorter or slightly different forms for a few of them (for example "Learning English in a Global Society" and "Understanding Reporting Verbs").

Part I: Describing English (Chapters 1–4: Three reasons why; English vocabulary and collocation; Grammatical metaphor and success in academic writing; Conversation Analysis in the language classroom)

The first part looks at English itself: vocabulary and the words that habitually occur together, grammatical metaphor as a feature of successful academic writing, and the analysis of talk in classrooms.

Part II: Teaching and Learning a Language (Chapters 5–8: What is communicative language teaching?; Six propositions in search of a methodology: applying linguistics to task-based language teaching; Researching motivation: from integrativeness to the ideal L2 self; Learning English in a global context)

Four chapters on language education: communicative language teaching, the linguistic basis of task-based teaching, the development of motivation research from integrativeness to the "ideal L2 self", and English learning in a global setting.

Part III: Applied Linguistics in a Wider Context (Chapters 9–12: Investigating metaphor and ideology in hard news stories; Who wrote this? The linguist as detective; The translator's choice; Interrogating the concept of stereotypes in intercultural communication)

The third part goes beyond the classroom. The publisher highlights language in the media and forensic linguistics among the book's topics; the four chapters cover metaphor and ideology in news reporting, authorship identification, choices in translation, and stereotyping in intercultural communication.

Part IV: Doing Research in Applied Linguistics (Chapters 13–16: Designing a questionnaire; Using interview data in case studies; Transcribing spoken interaction; Using a corpus to study spoken language)

Section 2 opens with research methods: questionnaire design, interviews in case studies, transcription of spoken interaction (at 17 pages, the longest chapter in the book), and corpus-based study of speech.

Part V: Skills of Interpretation (Chapters 17–18: Understanding noun phrases; Identifying and reporting other people's point of view)

Two chapters on reading academic texts: unpacking noun phrases, and recognising and reporting the positions of other writers.

Part VI: Skills of Expression (Chapters 19–20: Finding your voice; Organizing an essay)

Writing in the discipline: establishing the writer's own voice, and the structure and organisation of an essay.

Part VII: Editing Skills (Chapters 21–22: Referencing; Editing your own work)

The book closes with referencing conventions and self-editing, followed by an answer key to the exercises.

Key Concepts

Section 1: Key concepts in applied linguistics

• Collocation: the habitual co-occurrence of particular words, treated as part of describing English vocabulary.
• Grammatical metaphor: a grammatical resource that Chapter 3 connects, in its title, with success in academic writing.
• Conversation analysis: the close study of talk, applied here to the language classroom.
• Communicative and task-based language teaching: approaches to language teaching examined in Part II.
• Ideal L2 self: a concept in motivation research, reached in Chapter 7 by way of the older notion of integrativeness.
• Forensic linguistics: the use of linguistic evidence, here to answer the question of who wrote a text.
• Stereotypes in intercultural communication: a concept Chapter 12 questions rather than takes for granted.

Section 2: Study skills

• Research instruments: questionnaires, interviews, transcription and corpora as ways of collecting and handling data.
• Reporting other writers: identifying another writer's point of view and representing it in one's own text.
• Writer's voice: the writer's own position in academic writing.
• Referencing and self-editing: the conventions and checks that complete an academic text.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Concepts and skills in one book. The publisher presents the combination as the book's design: a section introducing key concepts and a section devoted to the study skills students need. Celeste Rodríguez Louro, reviewing it in the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (2011), described the book as successful on both fronts. Ken Hyland, quoted by the publisher, found it accessible and stimulating for students new to applied linguistics or TESOL.
• Breadth beyond language teaching. Part III gives forensic linguistics, translation, media discourse and intercultural communication a chapter each, so the book presents applied linguistics as wider than second language teaching, and the publisher stresses that the topics range from traditional to newer areas.
• Short chapters by specialists. The publisher describes the Section 1 chapters as specially commissioned from key authorities in each area, and the chapters are short enough to set one per seminar. Joseph Foley, quoted by the publisher, found the topics well suited to stimulating discussion with postgraduate students.
• Practice with answers. An answer key covers the exercises, and the publisher describes a companion website with interactive exercises, information about the contributors and annotated weblinks.

Limitations

• Selective rather than comprehensive. Twelve short chapters cannot cover the field systematically: there is no chapter on, for example, language assessment, and second language acquisition research appears mainly through the chapter on motivation. The publisher's own description promises selected key concepts in depth rather than a survey.
• Mostly about English. Part I is explicitly about describing English, and Part II includes a chapter on learning English in a global context; students working on other languages will find fewer direct applications.
• A 2010 snapshot. The book has not been revised, so the research it reports and its study-skills advice (for example on referencing conventions) reflect the state of the field and academic practice around 2009–2010.
• Audience level is pitched higher than "first book" might suggest. The publisher addresses advanced undergraduates and postgraduates of applied linguistics and TEFL/TESOL, and describes the book as initiating students into the discourse of the discipline; students at the very start of a degree should expect to read it with a tutor's guidance rather than as a self-study primer.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is a book for the start of an applied linguistics or TESOL programme, and it is the only one in the course that teaches academic study skills. Its closest course mate is Norbert Schmitt and Michael Rodgers's An Introduction to Applied Linguistics, also an edited survey by specialists, but organised to cover the field more systematically (the description of language, the main areas of enquiry, and language skills and assessment). Hunston and Oakey is the gentler entry point and the better choice for students who also need help with reading, research and essay writing; Schmitt and Rodgers is the fuller survey to read next.

Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada's How Languages Are Learned is a short introduction to second language learning research for teachers and fills the gap left by Hunston and Oakey's narrow treatment of acquisition. H. Douglas Brown and Heekyeong Lee's Principles of Language Learning and Teaching surveys acquisition theories in relation to classroom practice at greater length. Rod Ellis's The Study of Second Language Acquisition and the edited Theories in Second Language Acquisition by VanPatten, Keating and Wulff are specialist accounts of acquisition research, for later in a degree.

How to Use This Book

The book suits students starting a degree or a taught master's in applied linguistics, English language or TESOL; Hyland's endorsement singles out students new to the field.

Because the two sections do different jobs, use them in parallel rather than in sequence:

• Section 1 as seminar reading. Read one chapter a week, in any order, choosing the parts that match the course: Part II for a teaching-oriented programme, Part III for students who want to see the range of the field.
• Section 2 as a handbook. Read Parts V–VII early in the first term, before the first written assignment, and come back to Chapters 21–22 when editing it. Read the relevant chapter of Part IV before designing a small research project or dissertation study.
• Exercises. Do the exercises before checking the answer key, and use the companion website's interactive exercises and annotated links for further reading.

Students who want a systematic map of the field should follow with Schmitt and Rodgers; those heading into language teaching should add Lightbown and Spada.