An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

EXERCISE 1 (ON CHAPTER 1)
J. Trim, ‘Applied linguistics in society’, in P. Grunwell (ed.), 
Applied Linguistics in
Society
, London: CILTR, 1988, p. 6.
The following text is taken from a keynote address given by John Trim, then Chair
of the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL), at the 1987 Annual Meet -
ing, which celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the Association’s founding.
Trim recalls the events leading up to the founding of BAAL, including the earlier
founding of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (usually known
by its French title, Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée). In this
excerpt, Trim remarks on the increasing need for applied-linguistic interventions and
the lack of interest in such work by the dominant school of linguistics. The point
is similar to that made by Dell Hymes (1971) in his discussion of communicative
competence.
Unfortunately, Chomskyan linguistics … appears to have contributed little or
nothing to the development of applied linguistics, that is to say, to our empirical
understanding of the workings of language in the individual and society, and the
application of that knowledge, in an interdisciplinary framework, to the treat -
ment of problems of language acquisition, learning and use. Indeed, Chomsky
foresaw clearly that this would be the case. The distinction of ‘competence’ and
‘performance’, initially helpful in creating space for an autonomous linguistics
could be – and has been used to insulate linguistics from empirical accountability.
As the earlier excitement of psychologists over its apparent implications for child
language acquisition has faded, it seems probable that mainstream linguistics
has never been so academically encapsulated, with so little interest in its social
consequences and having so little to contribute to the understanding and solution
of the many urgent language problems with which society and the individuals
which compose it find themselves faced, at a time when communication, still pre -
dominantly through the medium of natural language, is becoming more com-
lex, more problematic, more central to organised society. It is surely a cause for
deep regret and deep concern if professional academic linguists are so absorbed by
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problems of government and binding in syntax that communication engineers,
information technologists, logopaedists and aphasiologists, language planners,
translators and interpreters, educationists concerned with normal child language
development and the language aspects of learning across the curriculum as well
as all those concerned with the increasing internationalisation of life, from the
management of multinational corporations, the conduct of international and
supra national organisations and authorities to the impact on individual lives
of personal mobility and the need for access to information, must all fend for
themselves and develop, ad hoc, their particular linguistic expertise.
Questions
1. The applied linguist, it is suggested, is interested more in performance than in
competence. What is meant by this distinction and why is it important for applied
linguistics?
2. List six of the areas that Trim considers require intervention by the applied
linguist.
3. Give reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the writer when he states that
‘communication … is becoming more complex, more problematic, more central to
organised society’.