Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 24, Issue 1, 2001

This article traces the origins of applied linguistics within North America. The primary sources of information were responses from a survey of leading applied linguists conducted in 1999 and a review of records from professional associations, chiefly those associated with the Linguistic Society of America, back to its foundation in 1924. Evidence is reported of the recognition of applied linguistics even with that designation as early as 1925. Extensive work is cited of an applied nature for three decades after that, much of it not carrying any such label. Likewise, language related activity conducted by many known more as specialists in other fields is reported from throughout the nineteenth century. A chronological record of North American applied linguistics is proposed showing four phases. The first predates the foundation of the Linguistic Society of America (prior to 1924). The second, labeled the post LSA period, covers the years from 1925 through 1959. The third, the early applied era, extends from 1960 to 1990 and the fourth, the independent status period extends from 1990 to the present. Summary comments portray the character of applied linguistics in North America in relation to similar activities in other geographical areas.

In this paper an attempt is made to identify the origins and distinctive character of Applied Linguistics in Australia, which differ significantly from those in the United States and the United Kingdom, where the field developed in the context of the English language education of international students. The Australian tradition differs in two main respects: (1) the strong influence and representation of the applied linguistics of modern languages, manifest in the work of university teachers of French and other modern languages, and in research on language in immigrant communities; and (2) the distinctive role of the applied linguistics of English, both as a mother tongue in schools, and as a language of immigrants. Using information from a series of interviews with leading figures in the development of Australian applied linguistics, the unique character of Australian Applied Linguistics is revealed.

This research investigates a situation specific anxiety: oral examination anxiety in a foreign language learning situation. It examines how a particular type of language anxiety - anxiety in oral communication - impacts on the learner’s oral performance. The subjects are first year Japanese language students at tertiary level in Australia. Questionnaire surveys were conducted to measure the students’: a) anxiety in foreign language classes, b) their anxiety toward oral examinations, and c) the anxiety they actually felt in an oral examination. The objectives of the study were to investigate relations between anxiety and scores in oral examinations. The results indicated that state anxiety can be a strong predictor of learners’ performance in an examination. However, the subjects’ trait anxiety had also both direct and indirect influence over their oral performance. A cause-effect relation among trait anxiety, oral performance, and state anxiety (MacIntyre and Gardner 1989) was also observed in this study.

This paper seeks to identify student, syllabus, and instructional parameters which influence the outcomes of speaking tasks aimed at preparing students for writing. The parameters arise from cognitive, affective and rhetorical concerns. The paper takes the view that some parameters are ‘givens’ while others can be manipulated positively by teachers to increase the productivity or change the outcomes of speaking to writing tasks.

This paper argues that the teaching of culture in second/foreign language classrooms involves more than equipping learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to communicate with native speakers. In the past few decades, the emphasis in second/foreign language teaching has shifted from acquisition of linguistic forms to enhancing communicative competence. In that process the native speaker has been seen as a source of "correctness" in communication behaviour and the target culture, monolithic and homogeneous. Such practice enforces the current nationalism-dominated worldview and may contribute to boundary maintenance between nations as much as, or possibly more than, to cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. This argument is based on the recognition that second/foreign language classrooms act as a location where more than two nations intersect, contributing to formations of cultural identities: both Us and the Other. In the current world of ever-increasing globalisation, national identity, which is embedded in our language and discourse, is more vigorously formed than ever in order to maintain national boundaries. Therefore, it is necessary for the second/foreign language profession to address the implications of cultural contents beyond communication needs and to foster critical attitudes in language learners.

This paper describes a study which examines how people interpret the safe sex messages presented in posters distributed throughout Australian airports as part of the government’s Travel Safe AIDS awareness campaign. The subjects who participated in the study were all under 25 years old, one of the target groups for the particular campaign. The group was made up of 20 native speakers of English and 20 non-native speakers of English. Both groups of readers largely recognized the intended messages of the texts and, in many cases, learnt something new from them. This was particularly the case with the non-native speakers of English. The paper cautions, however, on drawing the conclusion from the study that all readers will necessarily enter into the intended reading position of the texts, and respond positively to them.