Applied Linguists

This paper seeks out future directions for the field of study that has by now fully consolidated itself as an independent discipline under the name of Applied Linguistics. Special attention is drawn to the ‘loosening up’ of the very notion of language as a hermetically sealed entity, impervious to outside influences, as well as the groundbreaking critical turn it has taken in recent years, along with the impulse to intervene in the states of affairs that it unveils through painstaking studies. It is shown that this last development is by no means an optional follow-through from the analytic work customarily done. Rather, it is an inevitable sequel to the new stance adopted by researchers in the field – a development whose roots can, oddly enough, be traced back to Saussure’s thoughts at the very dawn of Linguistics, its ‘mother discipline’.  But it is also emphasized that, side by side with these exciting prospects, there also appear on the horizon some serious challenges to reckon with in the years ahead.