Toegepaste Aspecten Van Het Taalpsychologisch Onderzoek: Enkele inleidende overwegingen

These introductory remarks review some developments in Dutch applied psycholinguistic research during the last five years. Among them are the following:(1) Dutch psychologists show increased interest in child language, but still not enough to be of much help to the applied worker,(2) Interdisciplinary research in second language acquisition and bilingualism has blossomed up a great deal,(3) Reading and writing of Dutch, with special reference to Dutch morphology and spelling has become a field of much research activity,(4) Interactive research between psychologists, linguists and neuro-logists has rapidly developed over the recent years, in more or less institutionalized forms. It is of great potential importance for applications of various sorts.Applied psycholinguistics is often concerned with the promotion of successful communication. The paper stresses that natural languages are, in a critical way, more than just intelligent and effective communication systems. This is argued with reference to recent research in American Sign Language (versus chimp signing), in aphasia, and of a modern-day "wild child's" language. This critical distinction should be crucial for the applied worker as well.