An increasing number of graduate students, who teach German as a foreign language, have become interested in the process through which non-native speakers of a language acquire linguistic, social, literary, and cultural competence in a foreign language. Because language as social semiotic system underlies everything we do in this department, the field of applied linguistics offers a metareflexion on the role that language plays in reflecting and constructing the cultural realities we live by.

The association of the department with the Division of Language and Literacy, Society and Culture of the Graduate School of Education, and with the Berkeley Language Center Research Fellowship program has enabled graduate students to pursue research in stylistics, psycho- and sociolinguistics, and sociocultural theory as they illuminate aspects of second language acquisition in institutional settings.

The field of SLA/Applied Linguistics strives to bridge the gap between second language acquisition theory and language teaching practice, between the study of language and the study of literature or cultural studies, between everyday language practices and academic language use. It serves to explore common issues of language as communicative and aesthetic practice across departments on campus. Graduate students in the German department with an interest in Applied Linguistics typically take courses also in cognitive science and educational psychology, linguistics and linguistic anthropology, and rhetoric. Their research includes issues of language and identity, language and power, the importance of genre in the acquisition of second language literacy, notions of authorship and authenticity in computer-mediated communication, and the multilingual subject. Students have integrated theories of applied linguistics into their dissertations.

For further questions, please contact Professor Claire Kramsch.