An Overview of the History and Development of Applied Linguistics

This study is conducted to highlight the brief history of applied linguistics, its development over the years and the work of a few people who have contributed a lot to the development of applied linguistics (AL). Many people have defined or described applied linguistics and some of their definitions will also be presented. These definitions will give you an idea of what applied linguistics entails and the various areas of language endeavor it covers. The main objective of this study is to familiarize EFL learners with the background and nature of the concept of applied linguistics, i.e. giving various definitions of applied linguistics as well as describing how applied linguistics became a discipline. The study adopts the descriptive methodology.