Applied Linguistics Field Overview

Applied Linguistics is still a growing field. Key texts and handbooks have appeared in recent years and international applied linguistics conferences and professional associations occur regularly. While Applied Linguistics continues to attract new entrants and to generate new strands of research, there is a need for a clear and concise map of the field. This is the purpose of the Glossary.

About the Author

The author, Alan Davies, is a well-established, well-published authority on applied linguistics. Not a typically dry dictionary, Dr. Davies infuses the alphabetical entries with a touch of humor and thought-provoking context creating an up-to-date, useful, and coherent view of applied linguistics.

Contents and Features

The Glossary compiles the most ubiquitously used terms in applied linguistics and teacher-training literature. It takes a wide-ranging view of the field, drawing not only on linguistics but including psychology, sociology, education, measurement theory, speech therapy, translation, and language planning. Other features include:

• numerous cross-references to key terms;
• an introduction, which discusses the difficulty of defining applied linguistics; and
• a brief reading list of key texts.

Primary Market

The primary market is master’s students in Applied Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, and TESL/TEFL. Undergraduate students, particularly in language fields and in education, will also find it helpful, as well as language teachers who have not themselves followed Applied Linguistics courses and who are interested in finding out about the field.