More about applied linguistics & TESOL

What is applied linguistics/TESOL? It’s not limited to language education! Below are four other major areas open to scholars and practitioners in applied linguistics:

• Lexicography: Have you ever wondered how various dictionaries are compiled and what it takes to complete such tasks? Take a look at The Joy of Lexicography and Go ahead, make up new words! to see what a lexicographer says:

• Forensic linguistics: Linguistics evidence is increasingly used in forensic settings. In a murder case in 2008, linguistic analysis of text messages allegedly sent from the victim revealed stylistic features that subsequently helped contribute to the conviction of the murderer. Watch Tim Grant’s explanation of forensic linguistics.

• Corpus linguistics: If you’ve ever used Google, COCA, or Compleat Lexical Tutor, you already have some idea of a corpus. A corpus is a collection of electronic text files organized based on certain principles . Since corpora usually contains large number of texts and words, they are primarily used to help researchers identify patterns of texts.

There are also corpora of spoken languages, such as the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English. Language learners use corpora for various reasons, but most importantly, corpora provide them with many authentic examples and help them notice differences between synonyms.

• Computational linguistics: Want to help improve Google translation or the voice recognition on your phone? Try Cleverbot. Computational linguistics brings together expertise from linguistics, computer science, psychology, and others. Many applications are developed to assist translation, grammar and style checking, information retrieval, and textual and document analysis.

Last updated: 4/22/2016