Essential Terminology for Language Learning and Policy

Situated Language Practice

Situated language practice consists of the practice of a language under a given context that implies a specific function: to practice the language effectively within its environment.

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is the search for and study of computer applications in language teaching and learning. The main objective of CALL is to improve the learning capacity of those who are being taught a language through computerized means.

Language Planning and Policies

Language policy is a combination of explicit public policy and less obvious implicit social norms. Language policy may be directed to the language code itself, as in corpus planning, or to status planning. Status planning affects bilingualism and bilingual education by facilitating the study of languages of high or protected status.

National Language Policy and Cultural Pluralism

The treatment of cultural pluralism in national policy is a determining factor in languages-in-education policies and programs. National political reactions to cultural diversity range from:

• Multiculturalism: Where cultural pluralism is welcomed as an asset.
• Assimilation: Where minority cultural populations are expected to abandon their linguistic heritages and melt into majority language and cultural norms.

Translation and Critical Applied Linguistics

Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language (the source text) and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language. Related topics in critical applied linguistics include critical approaches to translation, the politics of translation, and the ways in which translating and interpreting relate to concerns such as:

• Class and gender
• Difference and ideology
• Social context

Lexicography and Dictionary Making

Lexicography may be described as the art and craft of writing a dictionary. A lexicographer is essentially someone who writes or contributes to a dictionary or dictionaries. Writing is the essential lexicographic activity, especially the writing and rewriting of semantic, pragmatic, or etymological descriptions.

Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is the process by which people learn a second language. It also refers to the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. A "second language" refers to any language learned in addition to a person's first language.

Discourse Analysis and Language in Use

Discourse analysis is the study of language viewed communicatively. It involves reference to concepts such as:

• Language in use
• Language above or beyond the sentence
• Language as meaning in interaction
• Language in situational and cultural contexts