Questões de Concurso Sobre inglês

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It’s the Perfect Time to Discover Avatar: The Last Airbender

Spend your Labor Day weekend watching a 15-year-old Nickelodeon show aimed at children. You won’t regret it.

I’m a TV critic who’s constantly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of new television there is to consume; I can’t imagine how the average viewer must feel. Currently, 10 episodes of a new space opera, six episodes of a Civil War drama, a mini series about chess, an adaptation of a beloved novel, and the fourth installment of an anthology series are all vying for my attention—and those are just the ones I’m interested in watching, not the ones that I’ve already written off as being not worth my time.

Yet time and again, I’ve been frustrated by television in 2020. Seasons are bloated and meandering; character arcs are picked up and then abandoned; episodes don’t seem to cohere around any single idea, let alone a good idea; and often, shows are more interested in playing out their premise for as long as possible than they are in telling a story that has a compelling arc and a stunning end. Too many current shows seem to have been greenlit based on someone’s slightly deranged moodboard, or a movie idea spun into a series pitch; not enough are dramatically paced, well-written, coalescing around strong characters and a powerful theme or two. So it was a delight to spend some of the doldrums of August marathoning Avatar: The Last Airbender—a show so good, it puts prestige dramas, expensive streaming series, and wry comedies to shame. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it took the beloved Nickelodeon series’ arrival on Netflix to finally get me to watch its compact, elegant three seasons, which are purportedly intended for children but somehow also managed to make me cry like a baby. Anyway, I’m late to the party—Avatar premiered in 2005—but I’m not alone: After debuting on the platform in May, the series stayed in Netflix’s top 10 for 61 days, topping a previous record held by Ozark. 

For an animated half-hour that lasted just three seasons, this is a lot of meta-text—but if you’ve seen it, it’s not surprising. The series, from creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, introduces viewers to a fantasy world guided by fully non-European tradition, where certain powerful individuals can manipulate one of the four elements. The Avatar is a particularly powerful individual who has the ability to master all four elements; as their title implies, one is reincarnated every generation, holding all of those past lives inside them.

SARAYA, Sonia, 2020. Disponível em: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/09/avatarthe-last-airbender-netflix. Acesso em 24 mar. 2021. 

Text 

When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him.

“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.” 

“I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not expect such a compliment.”

“Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. What could be more natural than his asking you again? He could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room. No thanks to his gallantry for that. Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.”

“Dear Lizzy!”

“Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.”

“I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.”

“I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough – one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone. And so you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”

“Certainly not – at first. But they are very pleasing women when you converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, chapter 4. Available at:

<https://www.gutenberg.org>. Accessed on: October 29th, 2018.

Text 

When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him.

“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.” 

“I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not expect such a compliment.”

“Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. What could be more natural than his asking you again? He could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room. No thanks to his gallantry for that. Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.”

“Dear Lizzy!”

“Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.”

“I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.”

“I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough – one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone. And so you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”

“Certainly not – at first. But they are very pleasing women when you converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, chapter 4. Available at:

<https://www.gutenberg.org>. Accessed on: October 29th, 2018.

Text 

When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him.

“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.” 

“I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not expect such a compliment.”

“Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. What could be more natural than his asking you again? He could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room. No thanks to his gallantry for that. Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.”

“Dear Lizzy!”

“Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.”

“I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.”

“I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough – one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone. And so you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”

“Certainly not – at first. But they are very pleasing women when you converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, chapter 4. Available at:

<https://www.gutenberg.org>. Accessed on: October 29th, 2018.

Text 

When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister just how very much she admired him.

“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good-humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! – so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”

“He is also handsome,” replied Elizabeth, “which a young man ought likewise to be, if he possibly can. His character is thereby complete.” 

“I was very much flattered by his asking me to dance a second time. I did not expect such a compliment.”

“Did not you? I did for you. But that is one great difference between us. Compliments always take you by surprise, and me never. What could be more natural than his asking you again? He could not help seeing that you were about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room. No thanks to his gallantry for that. Well, he certainly is very agreeable, and I give you leave to like him. You have liked many a stupider person.”

“Dear Lizzy!”

“Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life.”

“I would not wish to be hasty in censuring anyone; but I always speak what I think.”

“I know you do; and it is that which makes the wonder. With your good sense, to be so honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enough – one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design – to take the good of everybody’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad – belongs to you alone. And so you like this man’s sisters, too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his.”

“Certainly not – at first. But they are very pleasing women when you converse with them. Miss Bingley is to live with her brother, and keep his house; and I am much mistaken if we shall not find a very charming neighbour in her.”

Elizabeth listened in silence, but was not convinced; their behaviour at the assembly had not been calculated to please in general; and with more quickness of observation and less pliancy of temper than her sister, and with a judgement too unassailed by any attention to herself, she was very little disposed to approve them. They were in fact very fine ladies; not deficient in good humour when they were pleased, nor in the power of making themselves agreeable when they chose it, but proud and conceited. They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others. They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on their memories than that their brother’s fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.

Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice, chapter 4. Available at:

<https://www.gutenberg.org>. Accessed on: October 29th, 2018.

Text 

What is applied linguistics?

Vivian Cook, Newcastle University

Polish Translation 

If you tell someone you’re an applied linguist, they look at you with bafflement. If you amplify – it’s to do with linguistics – they still look baffled. You know, linguistics the science of language? Ah so you speak lots of languages? Well no, just English. So what do you actually do? Well I look at how people acquire languages and how we can teach them better. At last light begins to dawn and they tell you a story about how badly they were taught French at school.

The problem is that the applied linguists themselves don’t have much clearer ideas about what the subject consists of. They argue over whether it necessarily has anything to do with language teaching or with linguistics and whether it includes the actual description of language. All of these views exist among applied linguists and are reflected in the MA courses available at British universities under the label of applied linguistics.

The language teaching view of applied linguistics parallels TESOLorTEFL, by looking at ways of improving language teaching, backed by a more rigorous study of language. The motivation is that better teaching will be based on a better understanding of language. However, in British universities language teaching itself is not highly valued, often carried out by ancillary staff, because it does not lend itself easily to the kind of research publications that university careers now depend upon.

The closeness of the link to linguistics is also crucial. At one extreme you need the latest ideas hot from MIT on the principle that information about linguistics must be up-to-date – and linguistic theories change so fast that undergraduates discover their first year courses are out of date by their final year. It’s up to the end-users how they make practical use of the ideas, not the applied linguists.

This raises the issue whether other disciplines are as important as linguistics for applied linguistics. Psychology enters into many courses, as does education, particularly ideas about testing and about language learning. To some applied linguists the discipline draws on any subject with anything to say about language teaching or language learning. To others linguistics is the sole source of ideas. Sometime this is referred to as the issue of ‘autonomous applied linguistics’; is it a separate discipline or a poor relative of linguistics?

To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions of words of English are applied linguistics, as are the descriptions of social networks or of gender differences (but not usually descriptions of grammar). Once applied linguistics seemed boundless, including the study of first language acquisition and computational linguistics. To many, however, applied linguistics has become synonymous with SLA (though never linked to first language acquisition). SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research has had an enormous growth over the past decades. It enters into all of the above debates. Some people are concerned with classroom language acquisition because of its teaching implications, drawing mostly on psychological models of language and language processing and on social models of interaction and identity; others are concerned with SLA in natural settings. On another dimension, SLA can be seen as providing data to test out linguistic theories rather than to increase our knowledge of SLA itself; they are then more like linguists who happen to use SLA data than investigators of SLA in its own right. On a third dimension the linguistic world is more or less divided between those who see language as masses of things people have said and those who see it as knowledge in people’s minds. Some SLAresearchers analyse large corpora of learner’s utterances or essays; others test their ideas against the barest minimum of data; neither side really accept that the other has a valid point of view.

Applied linguistics then means many things to many people. Discovering what a book or a course in applied linguistics is about involves reading the small print to discover its orientation. Those with an interest in linguistic theory are going to feel frustrated when bombarded with classroom teaching techniques; those who want to handle large amounts of spoken or written data will be disappointed by single example sentences or experiments. Of course many people discover unexpected delights. One of my students who came to an MA course as an EFL course-writer ended up doing a Ph.D. thesis and book on learnability theory. This does not mean that most prospective MA students should not look very carefully, say checking the titles of the modules that actually make up the degree scheme, before they back a particular horse.

Available at: <http://www.viviancook.uk>.

Accessed on: November 2nd, 2018 (Adapted).

Text 

What is applied linguistics?

Vivian Cook, Newcastle University

Polish Translation 

If you tell someone you’re an applied linguist, they look at you with bafflement. If you amplify – it’s to do with linguistics – they still look baffled. You know, linguistics the science of language? Ah so you speak lots of languages? Well no, just English. So what do you actually do? Well I look at how people acquire languages and how we can teach them better. At last light begins to dawn and they tell you a story about how badly they were taught French at school.

The problem is that the applied linguists themselves don’t have much clearer ideas about what the subject consists of. They argue over whether it necessarily has anything to do with language teaching or with linguistics and whether it includes the actual description of language. All of these views exist among applied linguists and are reflected in the MA courses available at British universities under the label of applied linguistics.

The language teaching view of applied linguistics parallels TESOLorTEFL, by looking at ways of improving language teaching, backed by a more rigorous study of language. The motivation is that better teaching will be based on a better understanding of language. However, in British universities language teaching itself is not highly valued, often carried out by ancillary staff, because it does not lend itself easily to the kind of research publications that university careers now depend upon.

The closeness of the link to linguistics is also crucial. At one extreme you need the latest ideas hot from MIT on the principle that information about linguistics must be up-to-date – and linguistic theories change so fast that undergraduates discover their first year courses are out of date by their final year. It’s up to the end-users how they make practical use of the ideas, not the applied linguists.

This raises the issue whether other disciplines are as important as linguistics for applied linguistics. Psychology enters into many courses, as does education, particularly ideas about testing and about language learning. To some applied linguists the discipline draws on any subject with anything to say about language teaching or language learning. To others linguistics is the sole source of ideas. Sometime this is referred to as the issue of ‘autonomous applied linguistics’; is it a separate discipline or a poor relative of linguistics?

To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions of words of English are applied linguistics, as are the descriptions of social networks or of gender differences (but not usually descriptions of grammar). Once applied linguistics seemed boundless, including the study of first language acquisition and computational linguistics. To many, however, applied linguistics has become synonymous with SLA (though never linked to first language acquisition). SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research has had an enormous growth over the past decades. It enters into all of the above debates. Some people are concerned with classroom language acquisition because of its teaching implications, drawing mostly on psychological models of language and language processing and on social models of interaction and identity; others are concerned with SLA in natural settings. On another dimension, SLA can be seen as providing data to test out linguistic theories rather than to increase our knowledge of SLA itself; they are then more like linguists who happen to use SLA data than investigators of SLA in its own right. On a third dimension the linguistic world is more or less divided between those who see language as masses of things people have said and those who see it as knowledge in people’s minds. Some SLAresearchers analyse large corpora of learner’s utterances or essays; others test their ideas against the barest minimum of data; neither side really accept that the other has a valid point of view.

Applied linguistics then means many things to many people. Discovering what a book or a course in applied linguistics is about involves reading the small print to discover its orientation. Those with an interest in linguistic theory are going to feel frustrated when bombarded with classroom teaching techniques; those who want to handle large amounts of spoken or written data will be disappointed by single example sentences or experiments. Of course many people discover unexpected delights. One of my students who came to an MA course as an EFL course-writer ended up doing a Ph.D. thesis and book on learnability theory. This does not mean that most prospective MA students should not look very carefully, say checking the titles of the modules that actually make up the degree scheme, before they back a particular horse.

Available at: <http://www.viviancook.uk>.

Accessed on: November 2nd, 2018 (Adapted).

Text 

What is applied linguistics?

Vivian Cook, Newcastle University

Polish Translation 

If you tell someone you’re an applied linguist, they look at you with bafflement. If you amplify – it’s to do with linguistics – they still look baffled. You know, linguistics the science of language? Ah so you speak lots of languages? Well no, just English. So what do you actually do? Well I look at how people acquire languages and how we can teach them better. At last light begins to dawn and they tell you a story about how badly they were taught French at school.

The problem is that the applied linguists themselves don’t have much clearer ideas about what the subject consists of. They argue over whether it necessarily has anything to do with language teaching or with linguistics and whether it includes the actual description of language. All of these views exist among applied linguists and are reflected in the MA courses available at British universities under the label of applied linguistics.

The language teaching view of applied linguistics parallels TESOLorTEFL, by looking at ways of improving language teaching, backed by a more rigorous study of language. The motivation is that better teaching will be based on a better understanding of language. However, in British universities language teaching itself is not highly valued, often carried out by ancillary staff, because it does not lend itself easily to the kind of research publications that university careers now depend upon.

The closeness of the link to linguistics is also crucial. At one extreme you need the latest ideas hot from MIT on the principle that information about linguistics must be up-to-date – and linguistic theories change so fast that undergraduates discover their first year courses are out of date by their final year. It’s up to the end-users how they make practical use of the ideas, not the applied linguists.

This raises the issue whether other disciplines are as important as linguistics for applied linguistics. Psychology enters into many courses, as does education, particularly ideas about testing and about language learning. To some applied linguists the discipline draws on any subject with anything to say about language teaching or language learning. To others linguistics is the sole source of ideas. Sometime this is referred to as the issue of ‘autonomous applied linguistics’; is it a separate discipline or a poor relative of linguistics?

To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions of words of English are applied linguistics, as are the descriptions of social networks or of gender differences (but not usually descriptions of grammar). Once applied linguistics seemed boundless, including the study of first language acquisition and computational linguistics. To many, however, applied linguistics has become synonymous with SLA (though never linked to first language acquisition). SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research has had an enormous growth over the past decades. It enters into all of the above debates. Some people are concerned with classroom language acquisition because of its teaching implications, drawing mostly on psychological models of language and language processing and on social models of interaction and identity; others are concerned with SLA in natural settings. On another dimension, SLA can be seen as providing data to test out linguistic theories rather than to increase our knowledge of SLA itself; they are then more like linguists who happen to use SLA data than investigators of SLA in its own right. On a third dimension the linguistic world is more or less divided between those who see language as masses of things people have said and those who see it as knowledge in people’s minds. Some SLAresearchers analyse large corpora of learner’s utterances or essays; others test their ideas against the barest minimum of data; neither side really accept that the other has a valid point of view.

Applied linguistics then means many things to many people. Discovering what a book or a course in applied linguistics is about involves reading the small print to discover its orientation. Those with an interest in linguistic theory are going to feel frustrated when bombarded with classroom teaching techniques; those who want to handle large amounts of spoken or written data will be disappointed by single example sentences or experiments. Of course many people discover unexpected delights. One of my students who came to an MA course as an EFL course-writer ended up doing a Ph.D. thesis and book on learnability theory. This does not mean that most prospective MA students should not look very carefully, say checking the titles of the modules that actually make up the degree scheme, before they back a particular horse.

Available at: <http://www.viviancook.uk>.

Accessed on: November 2nd, 2018 (Adapted).

Text 

What is applied linguistics?

Vivian Cook, Newcastle University

Polish Translation 

If you tell someone you’re an applied linguist, they look at you with bafflement. If you amplify – it’s to do with linguistics – they still look baffled. You know, linguistics the science of language? Ah so you speak lots of languages? Well no, just English. So what do you actually do? Well I look at how people acquire languages and how we can teach them better. At last light begins to dawn and they tell you a story about how badly they were taught French at school.

The problem is that the applied linguists themselves don’t have much clearer ideas about what the subject consists of. They argue over whether it necessarily has anything to do with language teaching or with linguistics and whether it includes the actual description of language. All of these views exist among applied linguists and are reflected in the MA courses available at British universities under the label of applied linguistics.

The language teaching view of applied linguistics parallels TESOLorTEFL, by looking at ways of improving language teaching, backed by a more rigorous study of language. The motivation is that better teaching will be based on a better understanding of language. However, in British universities language teaching itself is not highly valued, often carried out by ancillary staff, because it does not lend itself easily to the kind of research publications that university careers now depend upon.

The closeness of the link to linguistics is also crucial. At one extreme you need the latest ideas hot from MIT on the principle that information about linguistics must be up-to-date – and linguistic theories change so fast that undergraduates discover their first year courses are out of date by their final year. It’s up to the end-users how they make practical use of the ideas, not the applied linguists.

This raises the issue whether other disciplines are as important as linguistics for applied linguistics. Psychology enters into many courses, as does education, particularly ideas about testing and about language learning. To some applied linguists the discipline draws on any subject with anything to say about language teaching or language learning. To others linguistics is the sole source of ideas. Sometime this is referred to as the issue of ‘autonomous applied linguistics’; is it a separate discipline or a poor relative of linguistics?

To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the construction of dictionaries or the collection of ‘corpora’ of millions of words of English are applied linguistics, as are the descriptions of social networks or of gender differences (but not usually descriptions of grammar). Once applied linguistics seemed boundless, including the study of first language acquisition and computational linguistics. To many, however, applied linguistics has become synonymous with SLA (though never linked to first language acquisition). SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research has had an enormous growth over the past decades. It enters into all of the above debates. Some people are concerned with classroom language acquisition because of its teaching implications, drawing mostly on psychological models of language and language processing and on social models of interaction and identity; others are concerned with SLA in natural settings. On another dimension, SLA can be seen as providing data to test out linguistic theories rather than to increase our knowledge of SLA itself; they are then more like linguists who happen to use SLA data than investigators of SLA in its own right. On a third dimension the linguistic world is more or less divided between those who see language as masses of things people have said and those who see it as knowledge in people’s minds. Some SLAresearchers analyse large corpora of learner’s utterances or essays; others test their ideas against the barest minimum of data; neither side really accept that the other has a valid point of view.

Applied linguistics then means many things to many people. Discovering what a book or a course in applied linguistics is about involves reading the small print to discover its orientation. Those with an interest in linguistic theory are going to feel frustrated when bombarded with classroom teaching techniques; those who want to handle large amounts of spoken or written data will be disappointed by single example sentences or experiments. Of course many people discover unexpected delights. One of my students who came to an MA course as an EFL course-writer ended up doing a Ph.D. thesis and book on learnability theory. This does not mean that most prospective MA students should not look very carefully, say checking the titles of the modules that actually make up the degree scheme, before they back a particular horse.

Available at: <http://www.viviancook.uk>.

Accessed on: November 2nd, 2018 (Adapted).