Why Applied Linguistics?
Well, the Applied Linguistics and Language Studies Graduate Program - LAEL — at São Paulo Catholic University was created in 1971. It was designed to prepare future language professors, researchers and language teacher trainers who are able to work with the learning and teaching of first and second languages, the investigation and analysis of language and the design of language-related research.
Our founder, professor Maria Antonieta Alba Celani, is the leading applied linguist in Brazil and she has helped us prepare professionals who are able to work independently and in leadership positions, providing critical, practical and theoretical knowledge relevant to their careers.
According to her, Applied Linguistics is no longer only about how to teach a second language, but also about what we are teaching and who needs to learn it (2009). So, Why should we engage in a graduate degree in Applied Linguistics?
For so many reasons!
Language plays a central role in our development, cognition, interaction, and all activities we regularly do. Applied Linguistics is also concerned with practical issues involving language in the life of the community we live in. That is why it is a challenging and stimulating discipline, that offers many opportunities for original work and amazing discoveries.
If we see language as humanity’s most useful tool, then, Applied Linguistics is what puts that tool to work. Applied Linguistics helps us identify, investigate, and offer solutions to many language-related real-life problems. It is here to help us solve most of the the language-based issues we face in life. Investigations in Applied Linguistics usually deal with practical issues that have a lot to do with communication in social contexts. Aren’t all those reasons enough?
All these reasons why to study Applied Linguistics may only be a starting point. LAEL, the Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics at PUCSP, is one of the few programs in Brazil that captures the inherent breadth of Applied Linguistics by exploring and applying the social, cognitive, interactional, cultural, and developmental aspects of language. Both faculty and students explore and apply language to integrate different approaches in ways that engender new modes and really try to apply them to real world concerns.
Here are some practical applications you deal with when you study Applied Linguistics:
Foreign language education, the teaching of English as a Foreign Language or Second Language, acquisition of second or foreign languages, assessment, multilingualism, language teaching, language policy, multilingualism, cross-cultural communication, maintenance of endangered languages, assessment and treatment of language difficulties, pathology of speech, you name it!
Join us! Our program in Applied Linguistics is the most traditional one in Brazil and the one responsible for preparing most of the highly successful Applied Linguistics professors who are now holding positions at major universities all over the country and abroad.
Our program is designed to prepare future professors, researchers and teachers who have an outstanding record of publication and participation in major conferences in Brazil and abroad.
The selection process for 2018.2 — second term — opens from April 9th to April 27th on the web.
