To define applied linguistics, one needs to recognize that a discipline cannot define itself. For that, one needs a theory. Some would say one needs a philosophical view, which gives an overview of all disciplines.

Applied linguistics is not …

We can start with how it should not be defined. Applied linguistics is too often defined with vague reference to ‘language’. Even more problematically, it is naïvely associated, as its name suggests, with linguistics, as a branch or ‘subset’ of that field. It is demonstrably not.

Applied linguistics is a discipline of design.

Albert Weideman

Rather, it is a distinct discipline with its own focus, not on things ‘lingual’, but on designing language interventions. So ‘design’ is its focus, and hence the claim: Applied linguistics is a discipline of design.

Though a theoretical claim, that is a practical starting point.

Applied linguistics designs, shapes, plans, arranges, facilitates or influences the solutions proposed for large scale or pervasive language problems.

Those who are at the receiving end of applied linguistic solutions encounter its designs mainly in three major types of plans:

• language courses;
• language tests; and
• language policies.

Applied linguistics is not a branch of linguistics. But it is a field that responds to human suffering by offering designed solutions to vexing and apparently intractable language problems. In that, it is operating in its own right, in service of others, and responsibly.

Different paradigms …

In applied linguistics, as in all other disciplines, paradigms come and go. What is mainstream today is theoretical old hat tomorrow. Developing a theory of applied linguistics by attending to its fundamentals gives us the opportunity to assess both the strong points of different paradigms, and to evaluate their weaknesses.