Defining issues in Ed Ling

[Leslie K Harsch]

In a recent issue of Working Papers in Ed Linguistics (18,2), the
editors mull over proposed definitions of our field:

>Spolsky's vision of educational linguistics was
>that it would be a field of (applied) linguistics, much like educational psychology or educational
>sociology are fields of their disciplines proper, that "start[s] with a specific problem and then looks
>to linguistics and other relevant disciplines for their contribution to its solution" (1978: 2).
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>
> Following from a recent discussion about definition, I'm drawing up a
> list of the top "problems" in our field.  When you consider
> educational linguistics overall, what problems, theoretical or
> practical, most need to be tackled right now and why?  Is there a
> pressing need for a basic concept (such as communicative competence)
> to be re-examined?  What connections urgently need to be made?
> The following is one example:  I suspect that educational linguistics
> could benefit from an integrated model of sociolinguistic and
> cognitive approaches to SLA, not only to refine theory but for the
> sake of solving specific teaching questions, such as what ways are
> available to improve the grammatical accuracy of second language
> students' writing?  One such attempt is proposed by Dwight Atkinson
> ["Toward a Sociocognitive Approach to Second Language Acquisition."
> The Modern Language Journal 86 (4): 525-545.]


Leslie






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