Welcome to this course on Applied Linguistics.
This is part of an effort National Program
on Technologically Enhanced Learning.
In this introductory module number one for
this course, we are going to introduce you
to the course and the content that will be
covered throughout.
My name is Rajesh Kumar and I teach linguistic
at Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
my contact details are with you.
Feel free to get in touch with me with the
questions that are relevant in understanding
the details of the course, the details of
the material that are covered on online.
I invite you to participate on the portal;
all your questions will be certainly answered
in a timely manner.
Please participate; it is a big time learning
experience from fellow participants as well.
We take care of this portal very carefully
and we answer each one of them properly.
For the evaluation, the office will keep sending
you information time to time.
To introduce you to the objective of this
course, it will deal with the applications
of linguistic in understanding the fundamental
ideas in the domains of the use of language.
I will simplify my objective even further.
It is very simple, whatever linguistic does,
whatever we do in the domain of linguistic
is an attempt to understand the language.
A course on Applied Linguistics is about application
of those tools the language used.
We will discuss the use of language with regard
to our society.
Therefore, when we say applications of Linguistic
tools in the use of language, we mean all
kinds of issues and difficulties that arise
in the society in domain of language used
are part of Applied Linguistics.
Some of the domains in which we find issues
and we find the requirement for any intervention
are second language acquisition, language
teaching, the role of language in education,
the questions of language in mind, language
in cognition and overlap between language
and mind cognition.
And a significant domain that requires attention,
particularly from the perspective of language
used is the domain of language and disability.
And then not last, language and computers.
This is another significant domain where the
use of language has increasingly been significant
over period of several decades now.
Now we are going to be covering only a few
domains, but this is not limited less of the
domains in which we use language.
We want to be focused in this course; therefore
we are going to take up only few domains.
And we are taking up the domains, which are
interrelated in some sense.
For example, the domain of language and mind
and language and education, at the same time
the application of language in machines that
is the domain of language in computers, they
are all related in a very significant way
and our understanding of language is going
to be very crucial in understanding these
domains and how language is used in these
domains.
So with this objective, we will move forward
and we will try to understand language, linguistics,
and then, we will take a look at several definitions
of Applied Linguistics and we will go to the
domains in some bit of details.
So we need to understand the word “linguistic”
in applied linguistics.
We have just talked about what we mean by
applied; that is, we are going to be talking
about application in several domains.
We will try to understand those domains as
well however, let us take a look at linguistics.
Linguistics is effort in understanding language.
In this field, we study language in a systematic
way.
All kinds of systematic efforts in understanding
language and things about language are part
of linguistics.
That is the broad definition of linguistics
possible.
It deals with the study of language that is
the fundamental properties of languages that
are common to all of them.
Now it is hard to conceive in the beginning,
but you will be surprised that languages (though
they look totally unrelated and what appears
to us is that there is not much common among
them) are related to each other in a very
significant way in the sense that there are
lots of common properties among all the languages.
Such properties are underlined to the structure
of language to make that explicit falls in
the domain of linguistics.
At the same time, the difference between languages
is part of parametric study and when there
are parameters along which languages differ
from one another.
In other words, parameters are responsible
for differences between languages or differences
between languages are dealt in parameters
of language.
So there are 2 parts, one is the principal
part which refers to the common properties
of language; and the parameter part which
refers to the way languages differ from one
another.
In the field of linguistics both aspects are
studied, its theories are studied or developed
with the help of theoretical tools in various
sub-branches of linguistics.
Linguists study language.
And the study of that (which is language)
in several subfields of linguistics and their
applications in resolving some real-life issues,
is part of Applied Linguistic.
Like I mentioned once again, linguistics,
is an effort in making underlying facts about
language obvious in a systematic fashion that
is what is done in linguistic.
Some of the branches of linguistics that deal
with different aspects of language are phonetic,
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and
pragmatics.
I will introduce these to you very briefly;
phonetic is a branch of linguistics, which
deals with sounds and particular mechanism
of sounds.
It studies physical properties of sound and
also how sounds are produced.
Phonology studies sound and their interpretation
with one another.
In other words, phonology studies features
of sound.
Morphology is the domain in which we study
how sounds are combined together to form a
word.
These are interesting domains or subfields
of linguistics, which deals with fascinating
aspects of language.
These are also fundamental domains of linguistics
in which we study fundamental parts of language.
Similarly, syntax deals with language at the
level of sentence.
The minimum unit of investigation in this
domain of study of language is a sentence.
Syntax deals with what a sentence mean and
how the fundamental properties of the structure
of language construct meaning.
Pragmatics in a larger sense is about the
study of the use of language.
And I am trying to include pragmatics as a
part of the core branch of linguistics because
it is an investigation into the domain of
pragmatics which also tells us how we learn
what to say in particular and what not to
say.
With all these, comes a branch of study of
language.
Another subfield of study of language is acquisition
and that in my opinion is one of the most
fundamental aspects in understanding language.
So before we come to the discussion on language,
let me talk a little bit more about linguistics
to have a comprehensive idea about what people
do in this discipline and its sub-discipline
apart from the core areas of the study of
language like phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
There are some areas, some subfields of linguistics,
which are interdisciplinary in nature.
Interdisciplinary means that they relate to
at least 2 different parts of the study.
So what it means is, for example, historical
linguistic or social linguistic or psycholinguistic,
anthropological linguistic, computational
linguistics and Neural linguistic and the
list goes on.
A vast list of different subfields of linguistics,
whether they are fundamental, core or interdisciplinary
only tells 
you how widespread the use of language is
in our life, in what different ways language
impacts our lives and therefore, all such
areas must be studied.
So in the area of historical linguistics,
we try to study language changes over a period
of time and how that can be mapped historically.
Also, history of language comes very close
to this subfield.
In sociolinguistics, we look at the interactions
between language and Society.
We look at it from two perspectives that is,
we can study society with language and also
we can study language with language the way
it is used in society.
All that is related to interaction between
language and society is part of social linguistic.
And similarly, psychological aspects of language
is part of psycholinguistics and how language
is significant or can contribute in understanding
machines or designing machines becomes part
of computational linguistics.
There are again various subfields of these
interdisciplinary aspects of the study of
language.
We would not go those many details of it;
the reason why we want to understand core
areas of study of language and interdisciplinary
approach in study of language is to get an
idea of what is it that is due in the discipline
of linguistics, which helps us, which enables
us to use theoretical tools.
And our understanding of language developed
from those theoretical investigations and
to apply them, and how we apply them in looking
at some of the real issues in the society
and where the direct applications of these
theoretical tools is tested, which is the
domain of applied linguistics.
So applied linguistics is also one of the
parts of this discipline of linguistics.
However, it is a domain name itself it can
in some sense contrast with the entire domain
of entire discipline of linguistic because
Applied Linguistic concerns the practical
aspects of the theoretical tools in resolving
real life issues.
So now we are going to come to understand,
what all we do in applied linguistics, but
before that we would like to take a quick
look at language.
So we started with understanding applied linguistics
and the objective of this course.
In that effort, we looked at both what we
mean by applied linguistics and how does linguistics
help us do what we do in applied linguistics?
But central to all of that is language and
therefore, a very quick introduction to language
is relevant.
We will try to familiarize you with some of
the aspects of language in this course as
well.
And that is going to be relevant in understanding
what is it that makes us equipped to deal
with difficulties of real life in different
domains and in what ways we understand language.
Just to build that background, we will be
looking at some of such issues as well in
this course.
However, let us understand the language.
I invite you to think about it very carefully.
It is such a natural thing to humans that
it doesn’t often draw our attention.
It comes to us so naturally and so rightfully
that it doesn’t deserve our attention much.
Without going into the details of that, I
would start with fundamentals of language
that it is part of us.
As I mentioned, it is natural to us, it grows
in us, in the sense that it develops with
us.
It is hard to imagine our existence without
language, there are very few things that we
could do without language.
In fact in order to do anything, we need language
and it is language that defines human, such
is the significance of language in our life.
In the sense that it is used, it is applicable
in all the domains of our lives in short,
in everything that we do.
Therefore, it is imperative for all and I
mean with emphasis, it is imperative for all
to understand the fundamental nature of language.
So to understand fundamental nature of language,
there are 2 particular aspects that we need
to look at.
One is the acquisition of language that is
learning of language and two is the structure
of language.
Again, it is going to be quite stimulating
for you to think how we learn language.
And when we see how we learn language, I want
you to take yourself back in time and think
how you started learning language as a child.
Therefore, it becomes convenient to talk about
how children learn language.
This is the area of 1st language acquisition,
that is and we call it 1st language because
we begin with language at that stage and 
the common thing the common aspect of that
learning among all is all human beings are
equipped to learn language.
In fact, it is the only scientific discipline,
which begins with the fundamental that all
humans are born equal.
In the sense, all humans are born equipped
with learning of language.
We are programmed in such a way that we will
end up learning language.
But which language and what we end up learning
is a matter of our interaction with our immediate
society.
So the role of immediate society and our interaction
with immediate society in learning what we
speak is crucial.
At the same time, how this input from the
immediate society is relevant and gets processed
in human mind is another aspect, which is
relevant in understanding how we learn language,
how it gets processed in human mind and how
human mind helps us speak and helps us learn
language is really significant in order to
understand nature of language.
We will deal with some of these things in
details in one or two modules in this course.
But I only want to underline these things
in the introductory part of this course, which
invites you to think about these complexities
involved in study of language and after that
the application of that study of language,
which we call applied linguistics.
So how human mind processes language is relevant
and it is quite observable from our experience
with the empirical facts in our lives is that
it is not that we speak only what we hear.
It is not that we speak only what we learn,
it is not that we speak only what we interact
about.
In fact, we have the capacity to come up with
unlimited number of sentences of a language
that we speak.
We can write all possible words in that language,
but we have the tacit knowledge, underlying
knowledge of all that is possible in that
language.
Such underlying, such rich underlying capacity
doesn’t come only from our interactions
in society, this underlines the role of human
mind in learning language and its one of the
aspects that we deal with in acquisition of
language.
The acquisition of language in later phase
of our life is a different story.
And therefore, I would want to make a distinction
to begin with that the acquisition of first
language is significantly different from the
acquisition of second language.
And we may use the word “learning” for
second language.
So we will, we also see and as second language
learning or acquisition is one of the significant
domains of Applied Linguistic in which we
see the application of linguistic tools.
So what actually happens is, we try to deduct
how first language acquisition works and then
is how it will be useful to understand what
goes in the learning of a second language.
This is how it could be… how the relevance
of understanding what we do in the discipline
of linguistics will make sense for people
who want to understand what goes on in Applied
Linguistics.
So that is about the acquisition of language,
where the 2 aspects are relevant that is,
immediate society and human mind.
Also what is relevant is the processing between
the 2 that is, when human mind interacts with
society, what aspects of processing are relevant
for us to understand that is about acquisition
of language.
The other part is the structure of language.
As we just discussed or I just mentioned that
language is one of the complex phenomena that
is to understand that, just go back to the
point where we said there are underlying fundamental
properties that are similar across languages
and then there are properties, which are responsible
for differences between all of them.
So when we elaborate this, and or when we
arrive at such a conclusion, it is possible
by looking at the structure of the language.
And to understand the structure of language,
we need to look at least structure of language
at the level of sound, structure of language
at the level of words and the structure of
language at the level of sentences.
When we uncover underlying properties of language
at these 3 levels, we see the structural synchronism
in language.
For example, let us start with understanding
what the things that are common to languages
are.
That is some common properties of languages.
See…all languages will have limited number
of sounds that is, no language in the world
has unlimited number of sounds.
This inventory of sounds is very few.
Among those sounds, most fundamental are vowels
and consonants are not fundamentals in the
sense that we can have a word only with vowels
sounds in all possible languages of the world.
However, in no languages of the world, we
can have a word without a vowel sound.
This is part of the fundamental properties
of language which are common across languages.
At the same time, sounds combine with each
other to make a word in a particular way.
That is, there is an underlying system, it
is not random, and it is not arbitrary.
With that restriction on combination of sound,
we get potentially unlimited number of words
in any given language.
So with limited sets of sounds, where not
all possible orders are permitted, we still
get practically unlimited number of sounds,
unlimited number of words.
This is, this requires investigation and therefore,
we look at the fundamental properties of word
formation at this level.
And then the requirements of a sentence in
the sense that a) what makes a sentence, b)
what are the essential components in making
of a sentence.
A very generic way of describing a sentence
is its words together.
Well… not too careful but even a simple
look at sentence tells you that it is not
just random collection of words, there are
rules that the bind them together and such
rules are sometimes obvious and easily visible
at the level of a sentence and some of them
are underlying.
So this is a part of structure of language.
And when we look at both together, we get
to understand nature of language.
Nature of language is very simple, it is fluid,
it is not countable, and the fluid nature
of language makes it uncountable entity.
It is only our cursory understanding that
we can count languages.
It is not possible to count languages that
come from a very fundamental look at the nature
of language.
This is not an outrageous conclusion, and
when you start looking at internal variations
within language which are observable with
open eyes and with limited understanding of
how language works, then you get to see the
true fluid nature of the language.
It is this fluidity of language, which makes
it multilingual.
That is, each language is multilingual in
itself.
The speakers of each language will have the
capacity to navigate and negotiate through
all its varieties and that is what is referred
to as multilingual capacity.
Now, this is a short introduction of language,
this language and what I described to you
about linguistics that linguist do in the
discipline of linguistics is to study these
parts about acquisition and structure of language
and the use of language.
So acquisition and structure are part of formal
study.
Formal properties of the study of language
and use of the language are art of the functional
domains of language.
What we derive as theoretical aspect of language
from the study of the two; that is formal
properties and functional properties is what
we apply in understanding real issues involving
language in the real world that is society
and such a domain is called Applied Linguistics.
So in short, let us take a quick look at what
people have said about Applied Linguistic
and what it means.
So like we have established so far, using
what we know about language, about its use
and about how we learn it, is what is all
about applied linguistics.
That is use of what we know about language
is what defines Applied Linguistic.
Applied Linguistic uses language related research
in wide variety of fields like acquisition,
teaching, literacy, gender studies, policy
studies, speech therapy, course analysis,
censorship, communications, media studies,
translations, Lexigo therapy, and forensic
science and just keep counting.
It is about utilization of knowledge about
the nature of language achieved by linguistic
research.
So you look at any possible definition of
Applied Linguistic, which is available to
you that definition is going to come to 2
parts that is, what we know about language
and what we do in language and how these two
things are put together is what we mean by
Applied Linguistics.
They have the defining characteristics of
Applied Linguistic in some sense is also autonomous
and at the same time, multidisciplinary.
But what is crucial is problem solving.
It is about practical concern that we have
about the role of language in shipping questions
that Applied Linguistic addresses.
The questions that Applied Linguistic addresses
concern everybody in the society in one shape
or the other.
And such is the significance of this discipline.
Some of the problems that are related to language
And I have also mentioned this before, but
let us take a look at this incomprehensive
list once again.
It is the issue related to language learning,
more importantly or not in the order of more
or less, at least equally importantly issues
related to language teaching.
Literacy is another big aspect of language
which involves language and it also involves
another discipline, which is policy study.
And then, most of the things about language
learning, language teaching and policy get
applied in dealing with literacy, language
contact in understanding language and culture,
language policy, as I just mentioned; assessment,
use, technology, interpretation and pathology.
These are domains in which we see language
related issues and we will be dealing with
a few of them to understand.
There are some typical questions that Applied
Linguistic will address and I am just trying
to put a few of them here ,that is, how can
we determine the literacy level of a population.
These are complex questions and are located
in language, which itself is complex.
But we can look at these questions with our
understanding of what we know about language
to make some sense out of it.
So, let us keep in mind that the keyword is
application in this course.
Some of the words that are that are going
to be relevant are applications, linguistics
and language.
Of course, these are the domains where we
use them.
We are going to start with a small introduction
of language, that is, the kind of introduction
which is going to help us understand nature
and structure of language 1st.
And then we get to know how we apply them
in different areas where we see language related
problems.
We will be available like I mentioned before
all the time, round the clock, send us your
questions through our portal, we will look
at each one of them and we will answer each
one of your questions, please look at associated
reading materials with different modules which
deals with different aspects of these groups,
thank you.
