Page 205 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 15: Branches in Linguistics: Educational Linguistics

Therefore, a good language education policy or effective methods of implementation will not ignore Notes
linguistics and the other related fields but will represent much more than an application of linguistics.
In this respect, educational linguistics is concerned with the dynamic ways in which theory, research,
policy, and practice inter-relate, and all work done under the rubric of educational linguistics is
focused on this relationship. Actually, what is distinctively important in his original formulation is
his "problem-oriented approach" to doing educational linguistics.

15.8 Problem-oriented Nature of Educational Linguistics

In educational linguistics, one does not simply apply disciplinary knowledge to a specific situation.
Instead, the researcher starts with a problem (or theme) related to language and education and then
synthesizes the research tools in his/her intellectual repertoire to investigate or explore it. Here, the
synthesis of research tools refers to a number of methods used in related fields for data acquisition
and analysis such as tutorials, observations, surveys, questionnaires, statistics, national/international
anthropological archives, goverment information sources, etc. All these research tools present
educational linguists the data from different perspectives and help attaining reliable and valid findings
for a specific situations.
Still, Spolsky admits that linguistics has a central role to play and it is in this area that most educational
linguists will have their primary training. However, while there has been a consensus on the relevance
of linguistics for education (and also education for linguistics), there is still less clarity as to the
nature of this relationship between them: is it application, implication, interpertation or mediation?
Or is it coexistance, collaboration, complementarity or compatibility?
Spolsky insistently emhasizes that educational linguistics "should not be, as it often seems, the
application of the latest linguistic theory to any available problem", but rather a problem-oriented
discipline focused on the needs of practice. He argues that linguistics has applications to and
implementations for education, both directly through language descriptions and secondarily through
linguistic subfields. At the same time, such a relationship includes the "coexistance of activities,
collaboration of efforts, complementarity of contributions, and compatibility of interests" - a balanced
reciprocity which may well serve as a model for theory and practice in the whole of the educational
linguistics field.
In educational linguistics, the focus on educational practice is both indirect and direct. The knowledge
generated in EL may be used to guide the process of crafting sound educational language policy
which is designed to influence practice. On the other hand, this knowledge may be used to guide
sound teaching practice as it is implemented in relation to educational language policy. Then, the
scope of educational linguistics, Spolsky later elaborates, is the intersection of linguistics and related
language sciences with formal and informal education.
One of the core themes in educational linguistics is language policy. Within language policy, it is
educational language policy that they are concerned. Educational language policy forms a part of
wider national language planning, focusing specifically on the educational sector as "the transmitter
and perpetuator of culture". Other themes dealt within EL can be specified as L1 and L2 acquisition,
language choice, language and ethnicity, descriptive analysis of speech acts and discourse, educational
implications of linguistic diversity, language planning, bilingual education, spoken interaction in
professional settings, and biliteracy.
15.9 Subfields of Educational Linguistics

Thanks to its problem-oriented nature, educational linguistics has close links with a number of
disciplines which are regarded as 'subfields' of educational linguistics by Hornberger. This also proves
that EL is an independent field, not a subfield of applied linguistics any more, but it has its own
subfields.
Theoretical Linguistics: It is a branch of linguistics concerned with developing models of linguistic
knowledge. It involves the search for and explanation of linguistic universals. Syntax, phonology,
morphology, and semantics are the core of theoretical linguistics.

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