Applied Linguistics and the Psychology of Instruction – A Case for Transfusion?

Abstract

It has become increasingly evident in recent years that what is by convention termed ‘applied linguistics’, in that it has to do with foreign language learning and instruction, should be as much applied PSYCHOLOGY as applied linguistics to say nothing of other possible types of application. Still, it is by no means unfortunate that linguistics has established itself as the primary discipline since it is, after all, LANGUAGE that is being taught and learned. It is admittedly symptomatic of this, dare one say, historical bias in applied linguistics that a good theory of language applied with a minimal knowledge of psychological theory (plus, one hopes a large amount of common sense) is probably more generally regarded as acceptable than a way of working based on a sound knowledge of psychology and only a brief acquaintance with linguistics. However it would be extremely unwise to presume that by applying just linguistics to problems of second language instruction or learning one had all that one needed as far as sources (content and techniques) are concerned. This would be to ignore all past and present theorising and experimentation within the field of instructional and learning psychology. The bias needs to be corrected.