Scholarship as the Bridge between Practice and Theory

The need to bridge theory and practice in applied linguists is as uncontroversial as the desire to do so. Yet the difficulty of bridging the divide remains all too real. This should not be seen as the fault of any constituency, but instead a natural outcome of the circumstances of applied linguistics as an academic field, and language education as an academic practice. In this talk I argue that the situation would be much improved if there were bi-directional discourse between researchers and practitioners instead of the current situation which relies almost exclusively on researchers who are pressed to apply their research by articulating implications for practice. In particular, there is a need for the practitioner voice as an equal contributor in the academic discourse. This voice will be heard if there is recognition and support for practitioner scholarship as valid academic activity in applied linguistics. In this talk I…