ABSTRACT:
In this article, based on a brief historical review of the constitution of Applied Linguistics (AL) as an autonomous field, we aim at promoting a reflection on the epistemological bases assumed by AL, understanding that both the constitution of the field and the definition of its priority research object occur in a movement of negation and approximation to certain epistemological strands and that this movement, due to its historical character, does not occur free of contradictions. In this direction, from a critical discussion of this historical constitution, we bring the problematization that every commitment to knowledge of reality – natural or social – is driven by “social worldviews” (LÖWY, 1987) that can be pro-maintenance or pro- transformation of the status quo and, thus, can be an ethical position. Our invitation is for the assumption of a scientific stance grounded in the objective analysis of social practice and, therefore, transformative.
KEYWORDS:
Applied Linguistics; Epistemology; Transformation