Applied Linguistics - Towards a New Integration? - Lars Evensen

Applied Linguistics - Towards a New Integration? - Lars Evensen

2. Competing paradigms in the history of applied linguistics

Applied Linguistics - Towards a New Integration? - Lars Evensen

Lars Sigfred Evensen [+-]
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Lars Sigfred Evensen is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Trondheim) and Chair of The Norwegian Association for Applied Linguistics (ANLA). He chaired The Nordic Research Group for Theoretical and Applied Text Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (NORDTEXT) 1987-1993 and has been an honorary board member since. His main research interests are in epistemology, discourse analysis, the acquisition of writing and technologically mediated interdisciplinary communication. He edited the journal Trondheim Papers in Applied Linguistics 1986-1989. He has edited the anthologies Nordic research in text linguistics and discourse analysis (1986), Innovation in the teaching of writing (in Norwegian, with Inge Moslet, 1993), Writing theory and classroom practices (in Norwegian, with Torlaug L. Hoel, 1997) and the interdisciplinary Thinking culture dialogically (with Craig Brandist, The International Bakhtin Centre, Sheffield, Finn Bostand and Hege Faber, NTNU, Trondheim, 2004).

Description

This chapter presents the development of two different traditions within applied linguistics. The first, older tradition takes a selection of theoretical notions as its starting point in approaching applied issues, and a second, newer tradition takes language or communication problems as its starting point. This wider approach invites considering applied linguistics as an emerging social science of its own. As this chapter shows, our historical development has implied a strong, but only partial move from the first towards the second of these two approaches. The current situation within applied linguistics is thus characterized more by tension, struggle and confusion than by consensus on any one approach.

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Citation

Evensen, Lars Sigfred. 2. Competing paradigms in the history of applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics - Towards a New Integration?. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 27-47 May 2013. ISBN 9781781792551. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=21654. Date accessed: 21 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.21654. May 2013

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