AILA 2017 symposium on History of Language Learning & Teaching

1. AILA 2017 Research Network 2 History of language learning and teaching: perspectives on innovation 25/7/2017
Applied linguistics versus linguistique appliquée:
innovation in language learning/teaching research in France (1964-2013)
Shona Whyte
Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL
Nice, France
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2. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
applied linguistics
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“nobody was born an applied linguist,
and there are very few
undergraduate degrees in applied
linguistics, so most of us come from
backgrounds in psychology, linguistics,
literature, or language teaching”
–Young, 2014: 3
“I think we can agree on what
AL is by not defining it”
–Kellerman in De Bot, 2015: 27-8
“One might take the view, of course, that
people who call themselves applied linguists
should stop agonising about the nature of their
enquiry, and just get on with it”
–Widdowson, 2000: 4

3. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
practical need for definitions
๏ recruitment, promotion, funding
๏ institutional decision-making
๏ collaboration - local, national, international
๏ epistemological, methodological considerations
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4. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
my history
๏ BA Languages (Interpreting &
Translation), Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh)
1987
๏ MATESOL & Applied Linguistics,
IU Bloomington 1990
๏ PhD Linguistics (Second language
acquisition) IU Bloomington 1994
[Bardovi-Harlig,Valdman]
๏ Associate professor English (EFL,TEFL,
CALL), U Nice 1995-
๏ Habilitation, Didactique de
l’anglais, U Havre, 2014
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5. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
my history
๏ BA Languages (Interpreting &
Translation), Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh)
1987
๏ MATESOL & Applied Linguistics,
IU Bloomington 1990
๏ PhD Linguistics (Second language
acquisition) IU Bloomington 1994
[Bardovi-Harlig,Valdman]
๏ Associate professor English (EFL,TEFL),
U Nice 1995-
๏ Habilitation, Didactique de
l’anglais, U Havre, 2014
5
applied
linguistics
but not
linguistique
appliquée

6. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
applied linguistics not linguistics applied
(Widdowson,2000:5,23)
๏ in the case of linguistics applied, the assumption is that the problem
can be reformulated by the unilateral application of concepts and
terms deriving from linguistic enquiry itself
๏ linguistic insights are not self-evident but a matter of interpretation […]
ideas and findings from linguistics can be made relevant in reference to
other perceptions and perspectives
๏ readiness to enquire critically into the relevance of linguistic theory and
description to the reformulation of problems in the practical domain. Such
an enquiry has to be linguistically informed without being
linguistically determined
๏ the business of applied linguistics in this view is to mediate
between linguistics and other discourses and identify where they
might relevantly interrelate
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7. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
history of applied linguists
๏ early developments in North
America, the UK, and France
๏ institutions and associations
๏ scholarly journals
๏ language/linguistics teaching
๏ three key innovative figures
๏ implications for the field today
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8. 8
APPLIED LINGUISTICS LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUEE
US UK France
Language Learning: a
quarterly journal of
applied linguis5cs
1948
School of Applied
Linguis@cs
J Ca%ord, Edinburgh
1957
Centre de linguis@que appliquée
B Quémada, Besançon
Center for Applied
Linguis@cs
C Ferguson, Michigan
Conference on University
training and research in
EFL/ESL, BriCsh Council,
London
1959-
1960
ATALA, B Quémada, Besançon
BEL (FLE), G Capelle
1962
Etudes de linguis5que appliquée
B Quémada, Besançon
1963
Séminaire de linguis5que formelle
A Culioli, ENS, Paris
AILA (Association
internationale de
linguistique appliquée)
1964
Associa(on interna(onale de
linguis(que appliquée à l'enseignement
des langues vivantes
A Culioli & B PoLer
Nancy, 1964

9. 9
APPLIED LINGUISTICS LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUEE
US UK France
1965
Associa5on française de
linguis5que appliquée
1st AILA congress, Besançon
BriCsh AssociaCon
of Applied
LinguisCcs (BAAL)
1967
American AssociaCon
for Applied LinguisCcs
(AAAL)
1977
Studies in Second
Language Acquisi5on
journal
1978
1979
Encrages journal => AcquisiCon et
interacCon en langue étrangère
(AILE)
Applied Linguis5cs journal 1980

10. 10
APPLIED LINGUISTICS LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUEE
US UK France
Language Learning: a
quarterly journal of
applied linguis5cs
1948
School of Applied
Linguis@cs
J Ca%ord, Edinburgh
1957
Centre de linguis@que appliquée
B Quémada, Besançon
Center for Applied
Linguis@cs
C Ferguson, Michigan
Conference on University
training and research in
EFL/ESL, BriCsh Council,
London
1959-
1960
ATALA, B Quémada, Besançon
BEL (FLE), G Capelle
1962
Etudes de linguis5que appliquée
B Quémada, Besançon
1963
Séminaire de linguis5que formelle
A Culioli, ENS, Paris
AILA (Association
internationale de
linguistique appliquée)
1964
Associa(on interna(onale de
linguis(que appliquée à l'enseignement
des langues vivantes
A Culioli & B PoLer
Nancy, 1964

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APPLIED LINGUISTICS LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUEE
US UK France
1965
Associa5on française de
linguis5que appliquée
1st AILA congress, Besançon
BriCsh AssociaCon
of Applied
LinguisCcs (BAAL)
1967
American AssociaCon
for Applied LinguisCcs
(AAAL)
1977
Studies in Second
Language Acquisi5on
journal
1978
1979
Encrages journal => AcquisiCon et
interacCon en langue étrangère
(AILE)
Applied Linguis5cs journal 1980

12. 12
APPLIED LINGUISTICS LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUEE
US UK France
Language Learning: a
quarterly journal of
applied linguis5cs
1948
School of Applied
Linguis@cs
J Ca%ord, Edinburgh
1957
Centre de linguis@que appliquée
B Quémada, Besançon
Center for Applied
Linguis@cs
C Ferguson, Michigan
Conference on University
training and research in
EFL/ESL, BriCsh Council,
London
1959-
1960
ATALA, B Quémada, Besançon
BEL (FLE), G Capelle
1962
Etudes de linguis5que appliquée
B Quémada, Besançon
1963
Séminaire de linguis5que formelle
A Culioli, ENS, Paris
AILA (Association
internationale de
linguistique appliquée)
1964
Associa(on interna(onale de
linguis(que appliquée à l'enseignement
des langues vivantes
A Culioli & B PoLer
Nancy, 1964

13. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
the French exception
๏ less than ten years after the foundation of AILA in Nancy, few
linguists in France were still working in applied linguistics
(Berthet, 2011: 93)
๏ we cannot but be struck by the late emergence of applied linguistics
and by the brief duration of its ascendancy in language teaching. In
France this discipline would last scarcely more than a decade
(Véronique, 2009: 50)
๏ in France, institutional research policy over that last fifty years has had the
effect of splitting up the concept of “applied linguistics” into various
specialised fields, including language learning and acquisition, bi-
and multilingualism, language teaching, lexicography, corpus linguistics,
terminology, translation studies, automatic language processing, language
variation, and so on (CRELA, 2013)
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14. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
3 innovations
๏ new approach to L2 learner errors
(Corder) => second language
acquisition
๏ new orientation in linguistic description =>
theory of enunciative operations
(Culioli)
๏ new field of research in teaching/learning
of French as a foreign language
and French culture (Galisson)
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15. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
S Pit Corder (1918-1990)
๏ British Council: teaching
๏ Applied linguistics
๏ BAAL (1967-70)
๏ AILA (1969-75)
๏ School of Applied Linguistics,
Edinburgh University (1964-83)
๏ 1967 The significance of learner
errors
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16. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
“It is not an exaggeration to say that this paper marked a
paradigm shift in that it represented a radical change of
attitude to learner behaviour. Up to this time errors had been
characterized as evidence of failure to learn.
Pit argued that, on the contrary, they should be considered
as evidence of success, since they revealed the
strategies, comparable with those used in first language
acquisition, which resulted in the systematic
development of the learner's transitional
competence.”
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The significance of learner errors (1967)
Widdowson,1990

17. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
The significance of learner errors (1967)
Widdowson,1990
“And these ideas did not only open up areas of enquiry in SLA.They also
had far-reaching implications of an immediately practical kind in
language teaching. For obviously, once you interpret errors positively
in this way as the effect of cognitive processes rather than negatively
as failures to conform, then this allows for the legitimacy of learner
initiative.
The possibility arises that the teacher, no matter how well-intentioned,
may be inhibiting learning in the very effort of trying to facilitate it.
The focus of pedagogy moves from teaching to learning.
There is a paradigm shift here as well.
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18. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
new field of SLA
๏ particularly developed in North
America
๏ epistemological debate: 1990s
(Gregg, 1989, 1996; Lantolf, 1996)
๏ independence from teaching
๏ inclusion in linguistics and applied
linguistics programmes
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“taking
explanation
seriously: or let a
couple of flowers
bloom”

19. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
French second language research
Véronique
๏ distinction between “second language research, a
branch of linguistics, and foreign language didactics, a
praxeological discipline” (Véronique 2010: 82)
๏ a litmus test for applied linguistics in the English-speaking
world as opposed to French language didactics in the French
tradition is the inclusion of foreign language
acquisition/learning
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20. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
the “just applied” problem
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https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/purity.png CC BY-NC 2.5

21. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
Antoine Culioli (1924-)
๏ Ecole Normale Supérieure
๏ Séminaire de linguistique formelle
(1963)
๏ Cofounder AILA (1964)
๏ Département de Recherches
linguistiques, Université Paris
Diderot
๏ Theory of enunciative operations
(cognitive linguistics/semantics)
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Culioli, A. La théorie des opérations
énonciatives. (Toulouse, 2000)

22. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
English linguistics in France
๏ Ecole normale supérieure : elite higher education
๏ selection and training of teachers and lecturers by
competitive exam
๏ English studies (anglistics): literature, civilisation, linguistics
(phonetics), didactics
๏ Pratique raisonnée de la langue (Moulin, Odin & Bouscaren),
pratique raisonnée en langue anglaise (J-C Souesme)
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23. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
Robert Galisson
(1932-)
๏ background in primary education
๏ didactology of languages/
cultures (1988)
๏ ERADLEC (Equipe de Recherche
et d’Accueil en Didactologie
des Langues et des
Cultures)
๏ Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Paris 3
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la linguistique
appliquée
dépendantistes -
applicationnistes - inféodent
théorisation externe -
produits d’importation
une attitude heuristique - une
théorie “étrangère” -
implanter
pas déterminées par l’attente
des praticiens
la didactologie/didactique des
langues-cultures
✤ indépendantistes -
autonomistes
✤ refusent toute subordination
✤ modèles spécifiquement conçus
pour répondre […] aux
problèmes que se posent
enseignants et apprenants

24. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
“The applicationists subordinate teaching and
learning languages to prestigious disciplines of reference
(like linguistics, psychology ...) from which they borrow
the theories they recommend for the classroom […] As
its name implies, applied linguistics belongs to this
category. .”
– Galisson, 1994
The separatists reject subordination to other
disciplines of reference (or preference!) […]The
didactics or didactology of language and
culture belongs to this category.
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LINGUISTIQUE APPLIQUEE
1962
Etudes de linguistique appliquée (ELA)
Quémada
1965 Association française de linguistique appliquée
1st AILA congress, Besançon
1979
Encrages journal => Acquisition et interaction en langue
étrangère (AILE)
1985
Didactique du Français Langue étrangère, Paris 3
Sorbonne Nouvelle: ERADLEC (Galisson)
ELA didactologie des langues-cultures
1989
Association des chercheurs et enseignants didacticiens des
langues étrangères (ACEDLE), L. Dabène

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En France, les
questions d’autonomie et de
légitimité de la discipline ont occupé une
place très importante, comme si l’on s’était
davantage soucié de borner le terrain plutôt
que de construire la maison.
In France
questions of the autonomy and
legitimacy of the discipline have
been extremely important, as though
more care were taken to stake out
the territory than building the
house.
– Berthet, 2011

27. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
the French exception
๏ mid 20th century language teachers (BEL, CREDIF) were
not academics
๏ no academic recognition
๏ theoretical orientation limited
๏ mid 20th century applied linguists were not language
teachers
๏ dominance of lexicography and machine translation
๏ independence of theoretical linguistics
๏ scholarly work anchored in fields outside language
sciences (education studies, critical theory) defined in
opposition to narrow view of linguistics applied
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28. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
recent
developments
๏ CRELA conference 2013
๏ renewed French AILA affiliate
(AFLA)
๏ new interest in ESP teaching
and research in higher
education
(Pagèze,AILA 2017)
๏ role of instructed SLA?
๏ Long 2017
๏ De Bot 2015
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some second language research
focuses on context and discourse,
making it close to the proposition
of foreign language didactics. It is
to be hoped that following
German research under the
banner of Sprachlehrforschung and
that of certain sectors of American
SLA, new cross disciplinary
research spaces can emerge in
work in French to link acquisition
research with the praxeological
perspective of foreign language
didactics
Véronique, 2010

29. 29
Long
2017
HARD SCIENCE ANALOGY
(biochemistry/health)
RESEARCH IN
INSTRUCTED SECOND
LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION (ISLA)
LANGUAGE TEACHING
RESEARCH
FUNDAMENTAL
RESEARCH
idenCfy nutriConal value of
vegetables
examine incidental/intenConal (implicit/explicit)
L2 learning in classroom seLngs (physical, virtual,
laboratory)
LABORATORY
EXPERIMENTS
test effecCveness of food
supplements in controlled trials
invesCgate how intervenCon affects acquisiCon of
L2 forms and learners' ability to perform real-
world tasks in L2
APPLIED
RESEARCH
invesCgate diagnosis and
treatment of paCents by health
workers
study L2 classrooms in
relaCon to universal
cogniCve processes
(input, feedback) with
assessment of learning
outcomes
L2 socialisaCon (idenCty
in relaCon to power,
gender, religion, poliCcs)
Context-dependent
pedagogical procedures
(teaching styles, use of
textbooks/L1)

30. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
definitions of applied linguistics (AL)
De Bot (2015)
1. AL is concerned with real world problems and ways to solve
them on the basis of linguistic knowledge and tools. For
the representatives of this definition, subfields like SLA are not part
of AL because they do not primarily deal with real world problems.
2. AL largely overlaps with SLA. For this group of researchers,
the real world problems are not the defining component.AL is seen
as a research field that makes use of a variety of research
techniques and tools and is primarily empirical in nature.
3. AL is everything that has to do with language apart
from theoretical linguistics.
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31. 31
RESEARCH IN
INSTRUCTED SECOND
LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION (ISLA)
LANGUAGE
DIDACTICS
FUNDAMENTAL
RESEARCH
L2 learning in classroom
settings (physical, virtual,
laboratory)
educational theory: roles
of teacher, pupil, content
cultural and intercultural
studies, multilingual/
plurilingual contexts
LABORATORY
EXPERIMENTS
effect of intervention on
L2 acquisition and
performance
description of
institutional contexts and
implications for teacher
education
APPLIED RESEARCH
assessment of L2 learning
outcomes in classroom
settings
L2 socialisation,
pedagogical procedures,
specific teaching/learning
contexts

32. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
in conclusion
๏ historical reasons for different
interpretations of applied linguistics in
France and English-speaking world
๏ resistance to wider definition of
linguistique appliquée along lines
of applied linguistics
๏ narrow reading of “applied”
๏ orientation to cultural studies
๏ preference for theory over empirical
research
๏ new opportunities for
reconfiguration of field
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33. AILA 2017 HoLLT: perspectives on innovation wp.me/p28EmH-N8
Applied linguistics versus
linguistique appliquée:
innovation in language
learning/teaching research
in France (1964-2013)
Shona Whyte
whyte@unice.fr
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