An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

8 CONCLUSION
In the last three chapters we have exemplified the work of applied linguistics, first (in
Chapter 3) as distinct from that of linguistics; second (in Chapter 4) in the fields of
language teaching and learning; and third (in Chapter 5) in other areas of language
use. We turn in Chapters 6 and 7 to more general considerations. In Chapter 6 we
discuss the professionalising of applied linguistics, while in Chapter 7 we query how
far current philosophical developments in the humanities and social sciences have
affected applied linguistics and in particular how influential socio-cultural theory
and the various ‘critical’ stances (e.g. critical applied linguistics, critical discourse
analysis) are. Chapter 8, specially written for this Second Edition, takes stock of
applied linguistics in the first decade of the twentieth century and ends by ranging
back over the earlier chapters.
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Chapter 6
The professionalising of applied
linguists
‘Let me recite what history teaches, history teaches.’
(Gertrude Stein, ‘If I Told Him (A Completed Portrait of Picasso)’)
1 INTRODUCTION
Now that we have exemplified the work and methods of applied linguistics, ranging
widely across the kinds of language problems addressed by the discipline, we turn
in the next chapters to two fundamental questions, that of the status of the profession
and that of the philosophical foundation of the subject. First, then, in this chapter
we discuss the extent to which applied linguistics can be regarded as a distinct
profession, its growth from early beginnings after the Second World War, its
institutional organisation, its provision of training and education for new members
and its concern with professional ethics.