daily lives. We are a group dedicated not to givefinal answers to many
of these problems, but determined rather to employ what skills we have
mastered to the benefit of those who need us most: the underprivileged,
the destitute, the handicapped. We are determined to lead our discipline
into avenues that are beneficial to mankind, something that advocates of
“applied”science have sometimes miserably failed in doing.
(174)3.1 An inclusive or exclusive definition?
There are two strands in the reactions of the informants, either an open one
in line with the range of topics at the conferences of the Association Inter-
nationale de Linguistique Appliquée (AILA), or a more restricted one. The
definitions of various AL organizations like AILA and AAAL (the American
Association of Applied Linguistics) are often taken as a yardstick. The definitions
of thefield by both organizations can be found in Appendix 2.
Both these definitions try to be as inclusive as possible, avoiding any risk
that someone would not feel welcome. This perspective is also reflected in
the description of AL provided by Alan Davies and Cathy Elder, editors
ofThe Handbook of Applied Linguistics:
Applied linguistics is often said to be concerned with solving or at least
ameliorating social problems involving language. The problems applied
linguistics concerns itself with are likely to be: How can we teach lan-
guages better? How can we improve the training of translators and
interpreters? How can we write a valid language examination? How can
we evaluate a school bilingual program? How can we determine the lit-
eracy levels of a whole population? How can we helpfully discuss the
language of a text? What advice can we offer a Ministry of Education on
a proposal to introduce a new medium of instruction? How can we
compare the acquisition of a European and an Asian language? What
advice should we give a defense lawyer on the authenticity of a police
transcript of an interview with a suspect?
(Davies and Elder 2004: 1)In her introduction to the monumentalEncyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Chapelle follows Hallet al.(2011: 19), who see AL
as a mode of inquiry engaged with real people and issues arising in a
political environment where academic perspectives and research alone
may or may not be important in conceptualizing problems andfinding
solutions. In such an environment, problem solvers must genuinely
engage with local knowledge and practice in seeking solutions.Most of these authoritative definitions seem to argue for a broad and
inclusive definition, and not for one that is purely restricted to the
26 Defining AL