Role of Applied Linguistics in the Teaching of English in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The importance of applied linguistics in general and English language teaching in particular is perceived by almost all pedagogues and educationists. Gone are days when a postgraduate or a graduate used to join teaching profession due the fact that he possessed good knowledge in English literature or even language. In the modern educational setting, the English teacher is supposed to know linguistics or applied English linguistics in order to prove himself as an effective English language teacher. In most pedagogic situations in Saudi Arabia, the teacher of English is bound to make error/contrastive analysis between L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English) so that he can evolve a compatible strategy for each sub-aspect of the language: sound, grammar, spelling, meaning etc. The present paper is a modest attempt towards exploring the use of applied linguistics in the whole process of teaching/learning of the target language (English). Adapted from the source document