Abstract: In this research, we (i) investigated comprehension of language teacher educators and pre-service language teachers concerning applied linguistics (AL), in the context of a language teacher education course and (ii) we problematized some implications of such comprehension for both the teaching and learning of languages and for the language teacher education. Results suggest that AL is conceived by language teacher educators as a subfield of linguistics; a discipline which mediates theory and practice; a non-disciplinary area; or as an autonomous discipline with focus on language. For pre-service language teachers, comprehension of AL is more rudimentary, not even known by most of the participants, in the same way that, for others, besides being confused with linguistics, AL is characterized as the study of the grammar of a language or even as a non-disciplinary investigative approaches.
Keywords:
Curriculum; epistemology; language teacher education.