Abstract :
Thirty years ago, I outlined a project for a 'critical applied linguistics for the 1990s'. This paper will (briefly) revisit that proposal and explore what has changed since, providing an opportunity to review applied linguistics more broadly, and to consider what role critical applied linguistics can play. Several questions guide this exploration: How has the world changed politically over the last thirty years? Are the issues that concern critical applied linguistics still the same as before? Neoliberal political economy, environmental destruction and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as intersectionality, post-truth politics and conspiracy theories are among the many concerns here. Other questions have to do with how applied linguistics has moved on from where it was 30 years ago, as various 'turns' – from the multilingual and translingual to the material and decolonial – have shifted attention from language structures to linguistic practices. Finally, we have to ask why all this matters for applied linguistics, why a critical framing of matters of concern is so important for the field, and why critical research, education and activism remain imperative.
