Overview
- Explores the core issues of complexity, emergence and causality in applied linguistics
- Undertakes a critical evaluation of how social research has been discussed by applied linguists
- Argues for the development of more sophisticated theoretical and methodological approaches
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book suggests that applied linguistics research is inherently concerned with complexity, emergence and causality, and because of this it also requires a robust social ontology. The book identifies and unpacks a range of conceptual issues in applied linguistics from a social realist perspective, and provides a critique of successionism and interpretivism as two dominant and enduring empiricist tendencies in the field. From this critique, it considers the emergence of complex dynamic system theory as viable yet not entirely unproblematic conceptual sophistication of current applied linguistics research. Although the growing popularity of complex dynamic system theory is undeniable and understandable, this book argues that its integration within a social realist ontology is necessary for further developments in the field. The book will be of interest to applied linguists and social scientists interested in language-related issues including language learning and teaching, languagechange, language policy and planning, bilingualism/multilingualism, and language and identity.
Reviews
“Jeremie Bouchard has produced a persuasive manifesto for a realist approach to applied linguistics. A wide-ranging critique of the social theory traditions relied on by the currently dominant approaches paves the way for a sophisticated alternative drawing on critical realism and complex dynamic systems theory. The result is a framework that offers new levels of theoretical depth to research in language use and language policy.” --Dave Elder-Vass, Honorary Fellow, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University, UK.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Jérémie Bouchard is a language teacher and sociolinguist with a penchant for social theory. His current interest centers on claims about language and its real-world uses made within applied linguistics research.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Complexity, Emergence, and Causality in Applied Linguistics
Authors: Jérémie Bouchard
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88032-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88031-6Published: 24 November 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88034-7Published: 25 November 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-88032-3Published: 23 November 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 452
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Social Theory, Critical Theory