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The Scientific Status of Applied Linguistics

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Book cover Responsible Design in Applied Linguistics: Theory and Practice

Part of the book series: Educational Linguistics ((EDUL,volume 28))

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Abstract

How ‘scientific’ is applied linguistics? Progressivist and modernist expectations are present in it from the start. Yet in this case scientific analysis presupposes a separate, preparatory phase for the planning of the intervention: theoretical analysis is utilized, but is encapsulated in, and subservient to the plan and its technical design. To make theory prescriptive or absolute is a perversion, and a recipe for eventual disappointment, as its disciplinary history shows. That provides more evidence that applied linguistics is a separate, independent discipline. Its conceptualisations spring from a different modality than the analytical.

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  1. University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Albert Weideman

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Weideman, A. (2017). The Scientific Status of Applied Linguistics. In: Responsible Design in Applied Linguistics: Theory and Practice. Educational Linguistics, vol 28. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41731-8_4

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