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Wednesday, February 06, 2013

The Future of Applied Linguistics

"What do aspiring applied linguists see as their own future needs and goals? Where do they want to be placed? Which sorts of issues do they want to deal with and in which countries or communities? Are they confident that on the basis of their graduate-level education they have the resources and experience to deal with the range of future challenges awaiting them? And what exactly are those challenges?"


Patricia Duff, Facing the Future Now: Reflections from a Student of Applied Linguistics, 1992 



Kind of amazing to see something written by one of my committee members, and a very distinguished scholar, at the beginning of her academic career. Worth thinking about these questions, though perhaps they can only be answered in retrospect. The second two questions are kind of haunting to me -- I've got applications in to two incredibly different institutions at the moment, though won't be doing any more apps until next year. If I got either job my future would be vastly different (a small local school with a speciality vs. huge international research university). I wonder if much has changed in the 20 years since she wrote this?


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