“There's nothing so practical as some good theories”

This paper airs some of the issues around the practical relevance of applied linguistics and in particular the relationship between researchers and the institutions and practitioners with whom they work. I suggest that applied linguistics needs to constitute its intellectual base within practical work outside the academy rather than simply applying theory to practice. This entails a more reflexive turn to applied linguistic research, and ethnography and teacher research provide useful models. When practical social linguistics is applied to settings other than education, how does it address the scientism which tends to dominate the discourses of these institutions? Some of the contextually sensitive conceptual and analytical tools developed in social linguistics are relevant, but many questions are still to be answered. For example, at what point does participant observation turn to consultancy or other forms of practical action? Such questions imply a reconstituted applied linguistics with a research community which includes both those in the academy and professionals and practitioners outside it.