10.2 Contribution of linguistics: applications and implications

　 In the previous section it has been postulated that linguistics is relevant to language teaching. Before discussing specifically how it is relevant to the levels of preparation and operation, we need to understand the precise nature of this ‘relevance’. Applied linguists have pondered the relation between linguistics and language teaching and agreed that linguistics contributes to language teaching. The contribution is seen as two fold: applications and implications.

　 The contribution in terms of application is easier to understand. The products of linguistic descriptions provide the input to syllabus design and material construction. It is hard to imagine that languages can ever be taught and learned as a component of education without reference to the outcome of linguistic descriptions. The metalanguage, created by linguists in their analysis of the sound system, the lexicogrammar and the meaning of a language, makes it possible to talk about what to teach in teaching languages. Pedagogic grammars and dictionaries are used by teachers and students as reference books. Indeed, it is hardly possible to define content of teaching without linguistic descriptions.

　 Implications are less obvious but not less important. The insights gained by linguists into the nature of language and language learning may enlighten language teaching professionals in thinking about what to teach and how to teach. As mentioned earlier, language teaching decisions have to be made at several levels　---　designing the content, determining the approach, selecting techniques and procedures, and assessing the effectiveness of teaching and learning. At the preparatory level the decisions are made by specialists. To make wise decisions, they need to draw information from relevant disciplines. They need to evaluate linguistic theories and see what implications a certain theory has for language teaching. At the operation level, language teachers are faced with an abundance of variables. Their understanding of the nature of language and the process of language learning influences their thinking about what to teach and how to teach. Whether one is aware of it or not, a view of language and language learning underlies one's decisions about teaching. The point was clearly made by the late renowned applied linguist, S. Pit Corder, “If we teach language, the way we approach our task will be influenced, or even determined, by what we believe language to be, by the particular informal theory or theories we have about it which seem to be relevant to the particular problem we are faced with” (Corder 1973: 19). In the following sections we will discuss how linguistic theories influence the practice of language teaching.