WhatisAppliedLinguistics?AppliedLinguisticsatUCLAaddresseslanguage-relatedproblemsandissuesintheeverydayworld.Weaddresstheseconcernsfromthreecomplementaryvantagepoints:languageacquisitionlanguageassessmentdiscourseanalysis/functionalgrammarWefocusontheinterfaceoftheseperspectivesinrealworldsituations.Otherdepartmentsfocusonindividualaspectssuchasfirstlanguageacquisition,conversationanalysis,orcomputationalmodeling,buttheydonotsystematicallybringtheseareastogetheraswedo.Forexample,whilepsychometriciansintheSchoolofEducationdealwithmeasurementissues,weareinterestedintherelationshipsbetweenthemeasurementoflanguageabilityandtheacquisitionofthatability.Whilesociologistsstudythestructureofconversation,weapplythatstudytoproblemsthatsecondlanguagelearnershaveincommunicatingwithnativespeakers.WearetheonlyacademicunitatUCLAdoingresearchinsecondlanguageacquisitionofchildandadultimmigrants,theacquisitionofdiscoursecompetenceinwrittenandspokenlanguage,aswellastheassessmentoflanguageabilitiesinalltypesoflanguagelearners.Wehavechangedourfocusfromteachereducationtoresearchandnolongerofferlanguageeducationasanareaofspecialization.