Lingüística aplicada crítica y multilectoescrituras: dos lentes incluyentes para la realidad multilingüe e intercultural de México

The goal of this paper is to present two theoretical concepts: critical applied linguistics and multiliteracies. It is argued that these two concepts can provide a theoretical framework where the intercultural and multilingual situation of Mexico and the social practices of vulnerable groups, such as indigenous groups, can be seen in a positive light, as opposed to the deficit models regularly used to see these groups. First, a succinct historical account of applied linguistics is presented, concluding this section with the description of critical applied linguistics. Then, the concept of multiliteracies is presented, focusing on the notions of multimodality and design. The paper concludes making connections between critical applied linguistics and multiliteracies with the cultural situation of Mexico.

Crossing borders, addressing diversity

This paper presents a story of applied linguistics from my personal vantage point as a multilingual scholar whose career began outside the centers of research and scholarship. The article explains the assumptions and practices characterizing the foundation of the discipline in modernist discourses, and delineates the changes resulting from globalization towards postmodern discourses that question positivistic inquiry and homogeneity. As applied linguistics evolves to address diversity as the norm, the article identifies the different schools that have gradually moved the field in that direction – e.g., variationist applied linguistics (VAL), critical applied linguistics (CAL), postmodern hybridity, and translingual practice. Through these movements, the field has also evolved fromlinguistics applied (LA)to a more theoretically plural and, currently, to a more agentive relationship with other disciplines. Rather than simply borrowing from other disciplines, applied linguists have begun to make their own contributions to those disciplines on language-related issues.