on SLA, which is theory oriented and does not have application as its main
goal, and AL defined more broadly, which does have application of research
findings as its goal. This view is also expressed by Aneta Pavlenko:“The best
contribution AL research can make and continues to make is to basic sci-
ence, in terms of highlighting the psycholinguistic mechanisms of second
language acquisition and multilingualism and illuminating ways languages
and multilingualism function in today’s global society.”
10.3 Negative impact
Celeste Kinginger states:“Krashen and the natural approach resulted in a net
decline in the quality of language teaching in US universities, especially when
paired with the rise of institutionalized online grammar instruction.”Guy
Cook is equally negative about the impact of research:
I don’t think it has. On the contrary, I think many movements, such as SLA,
CLT (Communicative Language Teaching), TBLT (Task-based Language
Teaching) have done a great deal of harm, by promoting Anglo centric
native-speaker models to the detriment of more inclusive and bilingual
approaches. However,“improvement”is a relative term. So what is regarded
as“improvement”changes from decade to decade, as values change.10.4 Little or no impact
Wolfgang Klein expresses his perception succinctly:“I see no evidence for a
major improvement.”Quite a few applied linguists share his views. Richard
Young mentions his own recent experience with learning Chinese:
I have recently begun to brush up my knowledge of Chinese. In doing so
I have been unpleasantly surprised by the extent to which the textbook,
the teaching methods, and the learning activities that my teacher is using
in 2014 are similar to the ways in which I studied French and German as
a teenager at school in London.Andrew Cohen shares this view:“Teaching has maybe improved, but I
still see an awful lot of traditional language teaching.”
Jim Lantolf thinks that research has not had the impact it should have
had. Teachers do not want to know about theories. He points to the difference
between ESL teachers who seem to be more open to innovation and
the teachers of foreign languages like German and French, who still use gram-
mar books as the basis for their teaching. Johannes Wagner thinks the
explanation for this goes back to the past:
Due to historical reasons, the teaching of English has never been marred
by the long history of grammar teaching, brought about by the inheritanceThe impact of AL research 123