1. Chapter 2

2. Skills needed: AL own reflection on their own problems

3. Take home exercise: exam
Instructions
Read the following excerpts from chapter 2 and answer the following:
What is the relationship between theory and practice advocated by A. Davies´ view of AL?

4. Excerpts
“Applied linguistics may seem a long way from Quakerism but the insistence on the necessity to begin with experience is the link. As we shall see, (...) AL has found its own need for theorising. The insistence on function, the appeal to looking at what applied linguists do, at their actual experience rather than what they say they do, these are also close parallels.”(p.14)
“What they [graduate sts of AL] find is that no solutions are provided but explanations are” (p.15)

5. Excerpts
“This [generalizing] is both releasing personally and effective academicaly because it permits objectivity. And in turn objectivity clears the way for the kind of theorising which illuminates experience and is changed by it” P:16 “It [Haugen´s work] abstracts and theorises from actual language data(...). It is this actualization which gives its robustness and which makes it an applied-linguistic endeavour. It is not linguistics alone, not political science alone nor sociology alone. It is the bringing together of these viewpoints to focus on a language problem in society which allows us to call it applied linguistics”. P.35

6. From chapter 4
“The association´s purpose is to promote research in the área of AL, for example language learning (...) to publish the results of this research and to promote international and interdisciplinary cooperation in these areas” (p.64)
Kaplan and Widdowson (1992) p. 64
“the application of linguistic knowledge to real-world problems (...). Applied is a technology which makes abstract ideas and research findings accessible and relevant to the real world; it mediates between theory and practice”.

7. “In all four of these areas (
“In all four of these areas (...) the thrust of applied linguistic activity is to extend our knowledge of what it is that the learner is learning (...). In addition to the evidence from linguistics, the applied linguist is also and equally interested in the learning and the context.” (p.83)

8. “The chief role of AL in the field of teaching and learning is, as elsewhere, to ask the right questions about the enterprise under discussion in its own context and at the same time to ensure that in spite of its particularities, the enterprise is approached as an example of the general system of language teaching to which it belongs”. P.91

9. The attraction of AL is precisely that it is a theorising activity, moving from practice to theory, janus-like, offering a framework for explanation and a blueprint for action”. (p.119) Janus: god of gates “[Corder ]´s AL is really concerned with approaches and questions and not with solutions”. P.137

10. Aside comment
Davies seems to have a contradictory discourse in his book
He wants to give importance to context but at the same time wants to use and produce general theories.
He avoids to be involved with the issue under investigation in a very traditional approach to Science: objectivity, neutrality
Ethics is not addressed in the book(?)
Definitions swing between more theory driven (study, investigate, ask questions) to act upon the world (solve, ameliorate) which gives AL a comfortable situation. What is the boundary between studying and solving? Who /what determines that? These are not discussed by Davies

11. “Research such as Bialystok´s is unlikely to have direct application to second language teaching. But that is of course not its purpose.And yet it belongs firmly within AL (...). P.40

12. From the problems described which ones show an action towards changing?
Theory production/contribution
Reflection?

13. Contributions of AL to the 4 problems
Problem 1: Language-program evaluation Contribution(action) Design criteria for evaluation of the courses Problem 2: Literacy acquisition Contribution (theory, reflection) Critical review of the studies Demystification of the role of L1 literacy

14. Contributions of AL to the 4 problems
Problem 4: Pedagogical grammar Contribution (action) To design one to meet demands of material writers, syllabus designers

15. Problem 5:
Workplace communication
Contribution (theory , action)
“To understand better how language works
To provide input to the design of materials
To provide advice for administrators about miscommunication” p.23
AL working with other professionals
Theory and practice are integrated p.23

16. Problem 6: Critical pedagogy (field not really a problem) Contribution (reflection) Education is political English use is context bound Critical towards ELT