Future Learn has always been a very interesting sourse of knowledge.
This time, I have chosen a course by the University of Leicester that has to do with language and I am very excited about it!
I am going to write some notes and my impressions over here, so that I can learn better and maybe inspire you to learn something new?
So what is Applied Linguistics anyway?
Some people believe that a Linguist is someone who can speak a lot of languages or someone who is intrested in grammar and teaching a languge and the truth is that a lot of linguists are Polyglotts or teachers, but Applied linguistics is not exactly that.
Applied Linguistics has to do with how a language is produced, how it, works, how we learn it, how we use it, how we understand it.
There are a lot of different fields:
Phonetics: is the branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of speech and their production, combination, description, and representation by written symbols.
Phonology: the science of speech sounds including especially the history and theory of sound changes in a language or in two or more related languages.
Syntax: the way in which linguistic elements (such as words) are put together to form constituents (such as phrases or clauses)
Semantics: The study of meanings
Pragmatics: a branch of semiotics that deals with the relation between signs or linguistic expressions and their users
or even more specialized like:
Psycholinguistics: The study of psycology and languages
Historical linguistics: The study of language change over time
Comparative linguistics: Comparison of languages, their similarities and differences
Forensic linguistics: The study of language in law
Clinical linguistics: The study of language in medical application
Social linguistics: the study of language in social issues like for example injustice
Intercultural linguistics: The study of language in communication between cultures
Another issue that was mentioned in the course is how language differs between men and women - i.g women tend to be more verbal than men.
More terms were mentions, like English as a Lingua Franca (and how it has become an international language particularly in the business world) and how language learning has develped (teaching methods and materials), and the Common Eurpean Framework and the levels of language learning.
Can't wait to see what's next!
To be continued!
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