British applied linguistics: impacts of and impacts on

Abstract

This article critically examines the demand that academic research should be assessed by its impact, and universities' compliance with that demand. Although the discussion centres mainly on the UK, it will have relevance to any academic context where government and/or business seek to control academics. The article begins by briefly examining the meaning of impact. It next considers the role of applied linguistics in shaping language-teaching revolutions, and suggests it was commercial and political interests which had the greatest impact. Moving on to the current wider scope of applied linguistics, it suggests that while the discipline has had positive influence in some areas, it has failed to influence government policy, but that this failure is not a measure of its worth. In the second part of the article, the focus changes to a consideration of impacts on applied linguistics by public relations (PR) models of language, and government interference in academic affairs. It notes the growth and power of PR units within British universities, and wonders why applied linguistics fails to challenge the vapid and often incorrect assertions made by these communication ‘experts’ about language use. It links this ‘PR turn’ in universities, and the vague language which surrounds it, to the tightening stranglehold of current and recent UK governments on university activity, comparing this briefly to the more open recruitment of applied linguistics to serve national security interests in the USA. The overall conclusions of the article are that impact is not necessarily a measure of academic worth, and that informed critique of establishment values should remain one of the main roles of academics. While these conclusions are relevant to all academic disciplines they are of particular poignancy for applied linguistics, given the role of language in establishing control and undermining academic freedoms.