Perspectives on teaching Applied Linguistics: From a distance up close

Applied Linguistics is in demand. As the field has expanded to investigate and intervene in relatively new areas like professional discourse, new students and researchers have been welcomed to the discipline. At the same time, the language-education roots of Applied Linguistics remain strong, and language education (and in particular English-language teaching, or ELT) is still an important intellectual and economic factor for many or most Applied Linguistics programs (cf. Graddol, 2006).

The size of the international ELT industry has not been lost on individuals and institutions who have an interest in the commercialisation of higher education, nor have the financial arguments supporting distance education. From the mid-1990s to 2008, programs offering language teacher education by distance (LTED) increased from 23 to over 120 (Hall & Knox, 2009). This is obviously related to other developments, including the emergence of the internet and the development of other information communication technologies. Nonetheless, the large number of LTED programs currently available suggests that learning and teaching Applied Linguistics by distance is a social practice which is far more prevalent now than was the case just 15 years ago.

This paper is based on three interviews with experience teachers of Applied Linguistics, in which they were asked for their thoughts and experiences in relation to distance teaching. The paper explores the discursive construction of teaching Applied Linguistics by distance in these interviews: how do these teachers construe and evaluate their experience of this set of social practices? On the basis of this analysis, reflections on the implications of the rise of LTED for the free-ness of Applied Linguistics are made.

References:

Graddol, D. (2006). English next: Why global English may mean the end of 'English as a Foreign Language'. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research

Hall, D. R., & Knox, J. S. (2009). Issues in the education of TESOL teachers by distance education. Distance Education, 30(1), 63-85.