is by not defining it.”Tove Skutnabb-Kangas feels the same. When asked
what her definition of AL is she wrote:“I don’t have one, and don’t think it
is important to define it.”
However, for the present book that would not be very helpful since it
would give no indication of who to approach for their views. As mentioned
in the previous chapter, the definition of AL used for the present project is:
the study of the development and use of multiple languages. I am very aware
of the fact that this definition reflects my own history and preferences and is
clearly not the generally accepted definition, though many of the inter-
viewees seemed happy with it. But maybe that shows the bias in my selection
of participants more than anything else. When I mentioned my definition to
two of the founders of AAAL, Roger Shuy and Bernard Spolsky, their
reactions were equivocal:“That’s certainly not the definition that Henry
Widdowson and I used when we started the journal [Applied Linguistics]in
1980!”(Spolsky), and:
I should be clear that I don’t disagree with your feeling that AAAL
should be concerned with the development of multiple languages. That
is certainly ONE of the important concerns AAAL should have. But I
believe that my vision is much broader than that...I feel that applied
linguistics is stuck in a myopic definition of itself–language learning,
teaching and testing.
(Shuy)It is interesting that in Roger Shuy’s comments AAAL and AL seem to be
equated. This is not uncommon. Joan Kelly Hall said:“When talking about
applied linguistics it is hard to think outside AAAL”, and Jodi Crandall
takes it even a step further:“AAAL shaped AL.”The link between AL and
AAAL is generally seen as a strong one: almost all informants mention the
annual AAAL conference as the conference they attend most regularly.
When asked about leaders in thefield Richard Young immediately thought
of the past presidents of AAAL as the most important leaders.
While for Widdowson the development of AL is linked to the journal
Applied Linguistics, for Catford (1998) there is a clear link between AL and
the journalLanguage Learning. In his‘Language learning and applied lin-
guistics: a historical sketch’, he describes the development of AL from a
largely American perspective. He mentions the customary developmental
line from AL as language teaching and translation to a broader perspective
that includes the range of topics that are now typically found in AL journals
and conferences. He makes a remark on the use of the term“applied”that is
relevant here:
The adjective“applied”is more usually affixed to the names of sciences
that have clearly acquired a recognized, independent existence as the
study of their subject in and of itself, and thus contrast with“pure”28 Defining AL