An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

10 APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND RESPONSIBILIT Y
Brumfit’s definition of applied linguistics has been much quoted: ‘The theoretical
and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central
issue’ (Brumfit 1995: 27). In the last twenty or so years there has been considerable
expansion of applied linguistics into new domains of real-world problems, as we see,
for example, in the 2005 Special Issue of 
Applied Linguistics
, where topics such
as Gender and Sexuality, Asylum Seeker Cases and Institutions of Opinion were
explored alongside analysis of the clash of knowledge and power in foreign languages
and the dissection of the conflicting roles of the pragmatic and the generic in applied
linguistics.
The expansion is one thing: what is new is the expectation that applied linguistics
must take responsibility, essentially political responsibility. This was proclaimed by
Pennycook (2001) and in language assessment by Shohamy (2001) and recently
continued by McNamara and Roever (2006). No doubt this concern for taking
responsibility, the acceptance of accountability, is one aspect of the professionalising
of applied linguistics which I discussed in Chapter 6 and is therefore part of the push
to ethicality. There is a difference, not always recognised, between two related
questions: one, in doing this (assessment, CDA, asylum seeker language analysis etc.)
are we behaving with ethical rigour; and two, should we be doing this anyway? The
first question is entirely proper; the second is improper since what it may do is to
make research subject to political judgement. This is most evident in the troubled
debates on the role of assessment. Such debates raise the potential conflict between
the rights of individual conscience on the one hand and the call of duty to one’s
professional responsibilities on the other. Codes of ethics and of practice exist to
establish just what those responsibilities are after agreement by the community,
academic or professional, to which one belongs. But all such codes need to allow
individual researchers, individual members, to object to particular responsibilities on
the grounds of conscience. What scholars such as Shohamy, Pennycook, McNamara
and Roever attempt, quite properly, is to persuade colleagues of the need for reform,
of just what are the responsibilities of applied linguists, just what role they should
adopt and what limits to put on the research and development areas they should be
involved in.
One very sensitive area with which English language teaching (ELT) has been
involved over the past fifty or so years is that of globalisation. What Skutnabb-
Kangas has termed linguicide (Skutnabb-Kangas, Phillipson and Rannut 1994) with
particular reference to the Third World was first applied to colonial territories where
English has, so it is claimed, a negative effect on local languages. But globalisation
has also had an impact on countries not in the Third World, on countries where
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English has taken more and more influential a role in public life. And this manifests
itself today in the growing importance of English in the European Community
(Phillipson 2003). The issue for applied linguistics is, again, what if any respon -
sibility applied linguists have to prevent or slow down such huge take-over, which,
it is claimed, hastens the decline and possibly death of other languages. Hence the
growth of scholarly work on World Englishes, recording the development of
new Englishes (Brutt-Griffler 2002) which may be seen as a reaction against the
hegemony I have mentioned. Singaporean English, Indian English, Nigerian English
etc. are ways of using English for local purposes and may therefore be seen as political
statements.
There is a further aspect of globalisation which is, after all, a more neutral term
for what is in effect the hegemony of the west (and above all of the USA). This runs
through all professional domains and is keenly felt by non-western academics
(Canagarajah 1999). A key text setting out this issue is Makoni et al. (2003) which
establishes its lead credibility in its Foreword. It calls on:
Black scholars to take on the duty and the challenge of researching and expanding
the possibilities inherent in African languages and the varieties of Black languages
they have generated around the globe over the years … Remarkably, these
languages have developed despite all the odds set against them by the historical
experience of the plantation, the colony, and the neo-colony … This collection is
one more step on the road toward the decolonization of Black languages and
Black thought.
(wa Thiong’o 2003: xi, xii)
The editors argue that the purpose of the book is to challenge ‘conventional
constructs such as multilingualism, indigenous languages, linguistic human rights –
and even the term “language” itself ’ (Makoni et al. 2003: 1).
Interestingly and to some extent ironically, the book is not written in a black
language. This is what the editors say:
although this book is on Black languages, it has not been written in a Black
language. As Black scholars from varying ethno-linguistic backgrounds, English is
the language we have in common. The use of English in writing and
communication between Black scholars is here a counter-hegemonic move: an
attempt to challenge the hegemony of English by using English to create an
intellectual counter-discourse in language studies.
(ibid: 1)
Kramsch’s contribution to the Special Issue of 
Applied Linguistics
mentioned
above ends with a general comment on the responsibilities of applied linguists; and
her comment has resonance for the black linguists I have quoted:
One of the main tools of power is the ability to frame the problems. It is the
responsibility of applied linguists, as researchers and as language educators, to
openly show the connection between language problems and the larger historical
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and geopolitical conditions that have brought them about and to re-frame the
problems accordingly.
(Kramsch 2005: 562)
This is, as they say, a big ask. What it does is to reveal the fault-line in applied
linguistics that runs between teaching and research into language problems on the
one hand and the political interventionism to relieve the underlying causes and
remove the problems on the other. Whether both roles are possible is a major issue
for applied linguists to argue about and investigate over the next period. I return
briefly to this issue at the end of this chapter.