Key Concepts in Applied Linguistics
Posted on Mar 1, 2025 in Other civil servant exams
- Bilingualism and Multilingualism: The use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers.
- Second Language Acquisition: The process by which people learn a second language.
- Contrastive Linguistics: A practice-oriented linguistic approach that seeks to describe the differences and similarities between a pair of languages.
- Conversation Analysis: An approach to the study of social interaction, embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life.
- Language Assessment: Its main focus is the assessment of first, second, or other languages in the school, college, or university context; assessment of language use in the workplace; and assessment of language in immigration, citizenship, and asylum contexts. The assessment may include listening, speaking, reading, writing, an integration of two or more of these skills, or other constructs of language ability.
- Discourse Analysis: The analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed).
- Translation: Translation in applied linguistics: Linguistic skills or disciplines are all interrelated and mutually integrated; hence, translation (also a linguistic discipline) can’t be discussed or viewed totally separately in isolation. In translation, you will be using various linguistic skills simultaneously.
- Pragmatics: Pragmatics is the study of the aspects of meaning and language use that are dependent on the speaker, the addressee, and other features of the context of utterance.
- Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC): Is defined as any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices. While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats (e.g., instant messaging, email, chat rooms), it has also been applied to other forms of text-based interaction such as text messaging.
- Foreign Language: Has no immediate or necessary practical application, might be used later for travel, or be required for school.
- Grammar Translation Method: Approaches language study through a detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by translating sentences and texts into the target language. This view consists of memorizing rules and facts to understand the morphology and syntax.
- World Englishes: Refers to the phenomenon of English as an international language, spoken in different ways by perhaps one-third of the world’s population spread across every continent. The term also indicates a view of English which embraces diversity and questions the assumption that contemporary native speakers have inherent stewardship of, or competence in, the language.
- Register: Is a way of using the language in certain contexts and situations, often varying according to formality of expression, choice of vocabulary, and degree of explicitness. Is intrapersonal because individual speakers normally control a repertoire of registers which they employ according to the circumstances.
- Accent: The degree of variation in the phonology of their language.
- Dialect: Dialects are variations of the same spoken language.
- Situated Language Practice: Is how we use languages in different environments.
