Calm Seas or Troubled Waters? Transitions, definitions and disagreements in applied linguistics

Cook, Guy (2005). Calm Seas or Troubled Waters? Transitions, definitions and disagreements in applied linguistics. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15(3) pp. 282–301.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2005.00092.x

Abstract

This article advances the position that an apparent current consensus over the nature and scope of applied linguistics is illusory. It is achieved only when definitions of the discipline are couched in the most general terms. When the details of theories are specified, we find fundamental differences of opinion both within applied linguistics and with linguistics. In the first part, the article reflects upon the history of applied linguistics, characterising it as falling into three periods. The second part presents a view of radical ideas in the third of these periods, focusing upon recent applied linguistic work in three areas: describing languages and defining speakers; modularity, modality and relativity; science, authority and action. Some work in these areas challenges fundamental linguistic as well as more conservative applied linguistic orthodoxies such as: the comparability of languages, the centrality of the native speaker, linguistic modularity and universalism, description without prescription, and the unique authority of science.