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4.01 Subfields of Educational Linguistics

Thanks to its problem-oriented nature, educational linguistics has close links with a number of disciplines which are regarded assubfields of educational linguistics by Hornberger (2001). This also proves that EL is an independent field, not a subfield of

applied linguistics any more, but it has its own subfields. They can be tabulated as follows:

Theoretical Linguistics: It is a branch of linguistics concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. It involves the

search for and explanation of linguistic universals. Syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics are the core of theoreticallinguistics.

Sociolinguistics: It is the study of effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context on theway language is used. The chief contribution of sociolinguistics in educational settings has been to draw attention to the differences

between language use in the classroom and in students' homes and communities. Because it is important to teaching and learning,language is heavily regulated in classrooms. Teacher talk is the name given to the special register that teachers use. It is a means ofinducting pupils into specific topics and approaches and imparting instruction. Like all registers, Teacher Talk has developed certainconventions and properties. It typically comprises longer and more complex utterances than the teacher expects from the pupils

(Mehan, 1979).

Psycholinguistics: It is interdisciplinary in nature and is studied by people in a variety of fields such as psychology, cognitive

science and linguistics. Linguistic-related areas are phonetics and phonology (focusing on how the brain processes and understandsthese sounds), morphology (relationships among words and their formations), syntax (how words are combined together to form

sentences), semantics, and pragmatics.

Anthropological Linguistics: It is the study of the relations between language and culture, and the relations among human biology,

cognition and language. It studies humans through the languages that they use.

Neurolinguistics: It is the science concerned with the human brain mechanisms underlying the comprehension, production and

abstract knowledge of language, be it spoken, signed or written. Neurolinguistics has highlighted the special role of that part of thehuman brain known as Brocas area in crucial aspects of human language, namely syntax: the component of language that involves

recursion.

Clinical Linguistics: It is a sub-discipline of linguistics and involves the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-

Language Pathology. The International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association is the unofficial organization of the field andwas formed in 1991. They conduct researches with the aims of advancing techniques in assessment and remediation in Speech-Language Pathologists and offering insights to formal linguistic theories.

Pragmatics: It is the study of the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than what is explicitly stated. The ability

to understand another speakers intended meaning is called pragmatic competence. Another perspective of pragmatics is that it dealswith the ways we reach our goals in communication.

Discourse Analysis: It is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written, spoken or signed language use. Discourseanalysis has been taken up in a variety of social science disciplines such as linguistics, sociology and psychology. As stated earlier,it has close links with educational linguistics in the sense that language is a discourse system so it should not be treated at the levelof isolated surface features.

Educational Psychology: It is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions,the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. It informs a wide range of specialities withineducational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning,special education and classroom management. It both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences.

Actually, it is one of the most important fields from which educational linguistics benefit.

It is clear that linguistics and psychology are indispensable parts of educational linguistics. However, language teaching should notlook to educational psychology or linguistics for revelations or discoveries on how to teach language, but should learn to utilizethese disciplines to make the vast practical experience in the teaching of foreign languages more meaningful, to evolve definite

principles of language teaching and consolidate them in a true science of language learning (Politzer, 1958).