Language Education and Applied Linguistics: Bridging the Two Fields

Language Education and Applied Linguistics: bridging the two fields provides a starting point for students and researchers in both Language and Education who wish to interpret and use insights from the field of Applied Linguistics, and for Applied Linguists who wish to engage in dialogue with language educators and researchers in education.

Providing a framework for understanding the resources individuals use to communicate, this accessible and innovative text will enable teachers and learners to understand and discuss features and tools used in communication.

This framework enables:

• Learners to explore their current language abilities and their desired future communicative abilities, empowering them to engage with their own language learning needs
• Language educators to explore central concerns in multiliteracy, digital literacies, plurilingualism and plurilingual development
• Applied Linguistics students to understand theories of applied linguistics and language education
• Sociolinguists to bring their research into education

Language Education and Applied Linguistics can be used by students, teachers, researchers and teacher educators to explore multilingual contexts and communicative purposes in language classrooms, language education and applied linguistics.

Howard Nicholas is a Senior Lecturer in Language Education in the Faculty of Education at La Trobe University. Trained as an applied linguist and language teacher, his research interests focus on second language acquisition, plurilingualism, language teaching and policy as well as learning with mobile devices. He has published in the areas of second language learning and teaching, learning with mobile devices and language teacher recruitment, education and employment.

Donna Starks is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at La Trobe University. Trained as a linguist, her research interests focus on the interface between language, identity and ethnicity. She has published in the areas of heritage language maintenance and lesser known varieties of English