Page 207 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 15: Branches in Linguistics: Educational Linguistics

1. Literacy is at the core of foundations of education. Literacy can be defined as the ability to Notes
identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written
materials associated with varying contexts. It involves a continuum of learning to enable an
individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to
participate fully in the wider society. For this reason, EL stresses that literacy should be in
primary consideration at each and every stage of educational processes.
2. It is educational linguistics which should be responsible for L1 and L2 acquisition, not applied
linguistics. As an independent field of inquiry with its own departments, journals, conferences
and scholars specialized in the field, EL is the one which should conduct researches and
studies specifically on L1 and L2 learning, and thus seek ways for improving opportunities in
language learning contexts.
3. Verbal intelligence is one of the most-used predictors of educational success. Therefore, learners
should be encouraged to have sufficient amount of linguistic competence and then turn it into
communicative competence.
4. Education needs linguistics since the improvement in language skills of writing, reading,
speaking, and listening can only be achieved through knowledge about language. Spolsky
himself admits that linguistics is an indispensible part of language learning process. Without
knowing about language itself, it is impossible to use it properly. The important point is the
'proportion' that should be allocated for linguistics in language learning. It should be as it is
required in foreign language education, not more than that.
5. A learner-centered, holistic, humanistic, and problem-oriented language teaching approach
should be adopted. Only in this way, learners' full potential can be unearthed and they can
fulfill the communicative functions of language use.
6. The use of target language in real communication should be the focus of foreign language
education. Literacy in foreign language can only be achieved through the use of target language
in all stages of learning, and thus teachers should create opportunities for learners to use the
language outside the classroom. Especially in the context of foreign language learning and
teaching, this can be managed through the use of technological devices.
7. Language education is a whole together with individials, educational setting, curriculum design,
and educational language policy. Therefore, language learning process should be considered
as a whole with its components and all planning should be made within this framework.
In the light of these principles, educational linguists aim at organizing classroom activities so as to
fulfill basic functions of foreign language education such as literacy, communicative competence,
learner-centered language learning tasks, and attempt to consider language learning/teaching issue
in a holistic manner including learners, schools, curricula and national policies of the governments.
15.11 Educational Linguistics’ Relations to ELT

Even though it is considered as a young field, educational linguistics has been very active since 1970s
in the sense that it has strong arguments related to the teaching of English as a second or foreign
language.
Its emphasis on "classroom interaction" is one of them. Educational linguists think that as well as it is
the core of educational linguistics research, classroom interaction is a significant part of language
teaching methodology. It is also important since it is closely associated with power and control in
classrooms and schools. Since the main objective of ELT practices is to be able to make students
equipped with necessary knowledge of language so that they can communicate well in real world,
educational linguistics' focus on classroom interaction is quite reasonable.
On the other hand, Pica notes that educational linguistics research has shed light upon primarily two
domains of practice: design and implementation of learner-centered, communicative curricula and
professionalization of the classroom teacher as decision-making educator. Stubbs (1986) also supports
the idea and adds that educational linguistics provides teachers with the knowledge of language

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