Applied Linguistics and Linguistics

The rapid growth of the field of applied linguistics over the last twenty years has led to a general observation that applied linguistics must be viewed as an interdisciplinary field, indeed, it is probably impossible to do applied linguistics without incorporating expertise from some related discipline, be it anthropology, psychology, education, sociology, psychometrics, or some other field. The role of linguistics itself in applied linguistics has, however, at times been underestimated. It makes little sense to maintain such a designation as applied linguistics without recognizing the centrality of the core discipline. The fact that such a relation has come into question at all suggests the sometimes less-than-ideal interaction between the divisions of the field. This question is further magnified by the many competing fields and research theories within linguistics and the sometimes-strident debates accompanying the competition.