Circular applied linguistics: A model for impactful, inclusive, and sustainable research

Christopher J. Jenks*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Applied linguists are committed to the investigation of language and real-world problems. While this commitment leads to greater awareness of societal issues within the discipline, there are increasing pressures from societies and academic institutions to ensure that scholarship is available to, or has direct value for, the individuals and communities that are the target of our investigations. It is indeed difficult to enact social change through research when scholarship is not tailored to, and carried out with, the very individuals and communities that are being investigated. This paper attends to this opportunity by asking the following question. How do we engage in more impactful, inclusive, and sustainable research that explicitly involves the individuals and communities that we investigate? I introduce circular applied linguistics to consider the ways in which the discipline can be more impactful, inclusive, and sustainable in its research. I show how circular applied linguistics is based on the mutual benefit and shared knowledge of the researcher and the researched, creating a culture of ethical, open science, and leading to reflexive scholarship, that has greater relevance to societies.

Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Applied Linguistics (United Kingdom)
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 7 Oct 2024

Keywords

  • communication in the professions
  • language and education in multilingual settings
  • multilingualism
  • sociolinguistics
  • الكلمات المفتاحيةعلم الاجتماع اللغوي؛ التواصل في المهن؛ اللغة والتعليم في البيئات المتعددة اللغات؛ التعدد اللغوي

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