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RR 2013/292 The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics Edited by Carol A. Chapelle Wiley-Blackwell Malden, MA and Oxford 2013 10 vols ISBN 978 1 4051 9473 0 £1,200 $1,995 Also available electronically as part of the Wiley Online Library updated twice yearly (ISBN 978 1 4051 9843 1 )
Keywords Encyclopedias, Linguistics
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-08-2013-0204
Giving an accurate definition of what Applied Linguistics (henceforth AL) is and does is still not straightforward. Carol A. Chapelle, editor of The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, is well aware of this definitional problem. Intelligently, she addresses it head-on in her introduction. Quoting Davies, she says that since the issues that those who call themselves "applied linguists" address are many, and all deal with language use in real world situations, one might be tempted to argue that "applied linguistics is the science of everything" (p. lxvii). But, like Davies, the Encyclopedia's editor resists the temptation. She correctly points out (p. lxvii) that "such a conclusion would be neither correct nor useful". Tom Cobb (2009), editor of one of the thematic areas of the Encyclopedia (Technology and Language), argues strongly against a vision of AL as "linguistics applied". In other words, AL should not be seen as a sub-field of linguistics, rather as an academic discipline in its own right, with its own body of theories, practices, and dedicated practitioners.
Luckily for Chapelle (and for the reader), the encyclopedia can benefit from previous thinking on how to define AL's scope and on its place among other disciplines. Obviously, it is about language. But not in an abstract sense; on the contrary: it is a discipline devoted to addressing, and possibly ameliorating, specific social issues where language is direcdy involved. AL may make use of theories about language and some of the tools of linguistics (and indeed it does), but it is a problem-solving discipline.
Historically, this has meant looking, for example, at how to improve second language teaching; how to improve the training of interpreters and translators, how to assist defence lawyers and prosecutors in determining the geographical provenance of a speaker in a recorded conversation. However, as Chapelle rightly points out (p. lxvii), "such questions, because of their origin in everyday social practices, may not reflect the academic and scholarly dimension...