Publisher's Synopsis
Applied linguistics in one of its manifestations can be defined as that knowledge of language that can be used to influence language performance. Applied linguistics is often said to be concerned with solving or at least ameliorating social problems involving language. The problems applied linguistics concerns itself with are likely to be: How can we teach languages better? How can we diagnose speech pathologies better? How can we improve the training of translators and interpreters? How can we write a valid language examination? How can we evaluate a school bilingual program? How can we determine the literacy levels of a whole population? How can we helpfully discuss the language of a text? What advice can we offer a on a proposal to introduce a new medium of instruction? The present volume aims at exploring not only the rhetorical moves of abstracts in the fields of applied linguistics and educational technology, but also the linguistic realizations of moves and authorial stance in different abstract moves. The increasing emphasis of applied linguistics on ethicality is linked to the growth of professionalism and to the concern for accountability, manifested in the widening emphasis on critical stances. This, is at its most acute in the tension between giving advice as the outcome of research and taking political action in order to change a situation which, it is claimed, needs amelioration. The aim of this volume is to introduce students of applied linguistics to corpus investigation. Its topic is, for the most part, studies that have been carried out on corpora in English, and much of the focus of the work relates to corpora used in English language teaching. Other applications, however, such as translation and investigations of ideology, are also included. This volume is intended for people who are interested in how language, more specifically English, works, and how knowledge about language can be applied in certain real-life contexts. It is expected that the reader will wish to carry out corpus investigations for him or herself and will need to become acquainted with the range.
