122223 SE Linguistics Seminar / BA Paper (2016W)

Applied linguistics covers a wide, interdisciplinary range of conceptual areas. It is concerned with enhancing our understanding of the role and functions of language and its contribution to solving real-world problems. Of the many and varied purposes of applied linguistics, the dominant application has always been the teaching and learning of second or foreign languages. In this seminar, we will map out the scope of applied linguistics on the basis of four conceptual areas: 1) the language user /learner; 2) language processing; 3) the language code and corpus; 4) the language community.

Participants will:
- further develop the research and analytical skills necessary for the study of language
- enhance their knowledge and insight in the topic area of applied linguistics
- conduct their own empirical investigations and gain insights into the methodology of applied linguistics
- deepen their understanding of different approaches to applied linguistics.

This course has been subdivided into three parts. In part I, participants will be introduced to the many purposes of applied linguistics. This introductory phase involves the discussion of articles and book chapters as well as hands-on work with language data. During this stage, students will be required to develop their research questions and work on their proposals. In part II, students are able to work on their individual projects. In part III, participants will present their projects and findings at the end-of-term conference.