Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems.
Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, communication research, information science, natural language processing, anthropology, and sociology.
Research in applied linguistics was shifted to "the theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue.
The linguistics applied approach to language teaching was promulgated most strenuously by Leonard Bloomfield, who developed the foundation for the Army Specialized Training Program, and by Charles C. Fries, who established the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Michigan in 1941.
[6] ALAA holds a joint annual conference in collaboration with the Association for Applied Linguistics in New Zealand (ALANZ).
[9] The Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand (ALANZ) produces the journal New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics and has been collaborating with the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia in a combined annual conference since 2010, with the Association for Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ) later joining the now three-way conference collaboration.
There are currently four publications associated with SAALA including the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Journal (SAJALS).
[13][14] AAAL holds an annual conference, usually in March or April, in the United States or Canada.