An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

English:
• inadequate past attempts to tackle illiteracy levels
• persistently high levels of inability to use/comprehend English among immi -
grants
• deficiencies in ESL for children
LOTEs:
• lack of take-up, especially among boys
• lack of recognition and use of migrant L1s
• decline of aboriginal languages
Also mentioned are the demands of tourism and the needs of interpreting and
translating. In both cases there is insufficient recognition of the needs and possible
opportunities.
The National Policy on Languages has been very influential in Australia. It is
probably the case that it would not have had the impact it has had without its over -
arching applied-linguistic vision.
5.2.2 Research
The distinction between Development and Research is not easy to make, but there
are differences. The essence of research is that it sets up a hypothesis (research
question) which it attempts to investigate. What a development does, on the other
hand, is to proceed on the basis of the best evidence available. The larger the enter -
prise, the more difficult it is to conduct research. The outcome of a research question
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can always be used to repeat the research in some revised mode. But if the enterprise
is a national or semi-national plan/policy there is little likelihood that repetition will
be possible. Development should of course draw on research findings and research
outcomes but with national plans there is inevitably a dearth of relevant research.
What can be done, as we saw with the Australian language policy, is to embed the
thinking behind the plan in the nexus of considerations, all of which will have their
own research to draw on.
Language planning – or language policy (Kachru 1981, Baldauf and Kaplan
1997, Ferguson 2006) – offers opportunities for research in applied linguistics, not
so much in its careful reporting of plans, main tenance, survival, shift and so on but
in its categorisation which permits methodical investigation. Ferguson’s diglossia
proposal (Ferguson 1959) and Stewart’s functional language use idea (Stewart
1968) have been influential in language planning de velopment. Here I want to refer