On AILA Europe Margit Langemets* EAAL: The Estonian Association for Applied Linguistics DOI 10.1515/eujal-2016-0011 Keywords: applied linguistics, publications, Estonian 1 The history and organization of EAAL The Estonian Association for Applied Linguistics (Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Üh- ing, henceforth EAAL) was founded in 2004. EAAL is a professional organization of individuals and institutions interested and active in applied linguistics re- search. Membership is open to all those with a professional and/or research interest in issues that have to do with (Estonian) language. EAAL is affiliated to AILA, the International Association of Applied Linguistics, since October 2004 (see Estonia). There was an urgent need for creating a forum for a large number of research- ers not working in the field of theoretical lingustics but, instead, in the broad variety of all other fields of linguistics, still not calling themselves applied linguists (Kerge 2002). The founding of EAAL was largely motivated by the Finnish contacts. One of the founders was Kari Sajavaara (1938–2006), a well-known linguist, professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Jyväskylä, who has promoted interna- tional understanding and friendship among scholars as well as nations, e.g. Polish and Estonian. There have been no subject field sections in EAAL. We have always claimed that linguistics is applied lingistics. EAAL stands for connecting all people dealing with language. Of course, for ages the widest discipline has internationally been language learning and teaching, L1 acquisition, L2 learning, multilingualism, etc. But beyond this there are large areas of society bound to language, e.g. (following fuzzily the list of Karlfried Knapp): issues related to language and society of such *Corresponding author: Margit Langemets, Dictionary Department, Institute of the Estonian Language, Tallinn, Estonia, E-Mail: margit.langemets@eki.ee EuJAL 2017; 5(1): 147–152 MOUTON Brought to you by | Göteborg University - University of Gothenburg Authenticated Download Date | 1/13/18 10:26 AM