应用语言学还是教育语言学?——对二语习得研究学科属性的思考

Applied Linguistics or Educational Linguistics? Reflections upon the Nature of the SLA Discipline

二语习得研究这门学科是从语言学发展而来的,因此,人们普遍把它归到语言学领域,或称之为应用语言学。但经过近半个世纪的发展,它已经成为涉及多种学科、面向二语/外语教育的一个独立领域,因此,我们认为教育语言学比应用语言学更能准确表述本学科的学科属性。文章结合我国高等院校外语教学实际,发现由于对二语习得学科属性认识的错误,把二语习得研究笼统地挂靠在语言学和应用语言学名下,这实际上是“语言学→应用语言学(二语习得)→语言教学”这一思路在作怪。文章认为,二语习得学科属性虽然在国内语言学界有过讨论,但没有引起足够的重视,在高等院校外语专业里,在二语习得的学科建设上,依然没有摆脱以语言学为中心的这一思路的羁绊,其结果是培养不出一支高素质的二语习得理论队伍和高水平的师资队伍,从而拖了整个外语教学的后腿。

This paper discusses the interdisciplinary nature of Second Language Acquisition research. SLA originated from the field of linguistics in the early 60s; hence it is generally considered to be a branch or extension of linguistic science, commonly referred to as 'applied linguistics'. However, SLA has undergone tremendous growth in the last fifty years or so, having evolved into an interdisciplinary field that addresses all kinds of practical problem associated with second/foreign-language education. Therefore, 'educational linguistics' is a preferable term to 'applied linguistics', as the former captures the true nature of SLA as a field of inquiry. It is true that some scholars in the Chinese SLA community have attempted to clarify confusion surrounding the interdisciplinary nature of SLA, but so pervasive is the misunderstanding that no action has been taken to improve this situation. Foreign-language education leaders, researchers, and practitioners should be helped to see the importance of a correct understanding of the nature of SLA research, which, to quote Spolsky (1999), is an intersection of language and education. Failure to 'liberate' SLA research from the dominance of linguistics is detrimental to the cause of Foreign Language Teaching in China as it negatively affects the training and development of young SLA researchers and SLA teachers.