In Critical applied linguistics: A critical (re-)introduction, an extensively updated second edition of the 2001 work of the same title, Alastair Pennycook seeks to provide an updated picture of the field known as critical applied linguistics (CAL), which the author holds to be a dynamic collection of ideas and that seek to enact change on the field of applied linguistics. While contextualizing this discipline within its problematic origins, Pennycook provides a detailed account of the various forces that have shaped it, as well as the contrasting and at times conflicting approaches that are used for critique within the field.

In the preface and introduction, Pennycook describes the background of the revision of the book into its second edition, specifically pointing out the prominence of neoliberal politics, social movements such as Black Lives Matter, the rise of Queer concerns, and the COVID-19 pandemic as new turns that necessitated a fresh look at trends in CAL. Perennial concerns in the field of CAL are also explored, such as (rising) socioeconomic inequality, White supremacy, and the role of colonialism in the practice of applied linguistics. Accordingly, Pennycook states that the purpose of the volume is not only to provide a comprehensive and collaborative overview of the ideological forces that shape CAL, but to advocate for changes to applied linguistics, namely, decolonization and the incorporation of ideas from the Global South. These are repeated themes in the volume, and they provide an undercurrent to the direction taken in the main chapters.

In the first chapter, Pennycook seeks to define what CAL is, what it concerns itself with, and other fields with which it intersects. The author identifies several concerns as central to CAL, including the ‘five Ds’ of critical work in general (domination, disparity, discrimination, difference, and desire), and elaborates on what it means to be critical towards language, difference, texts, and pedagogy—central to all of this being the problematization of social relationships. In the second chapter, Pennycook then sets the ideological and political stage for placing the various approaches to critique on language and applied linguistics into conversation and opposition. Most importantly for the analysis throughout the work, these frameworks include a liberal(-egalitarian) approach, a modernist approach associated with Neo-Marxism and structuralism, and a situated practices approach associated with post-structuralism. Pennycook finds fault with the liberal approach throughout the work, and states that it does not address the inequalities that necessitate CAL due to its wish for equality, and also elaborates on various limitations of the other two frameworks throughout the following chapters.

In the third, fourth, and fifth chapters, these frameworks are then applied to the politicization of language, difference, and texts. Their relevance to and influence on CAL is also discussed at length. The third chapter explores the relationship between language and power, and given the propensity for applied linguistics to be linked with TESOL, the chapter analyses the global spread of English as the result of a colonial power dynamic. Pennycook argues that the liberal account is insufficient for critique, as it seeks to justify wide access to academic English, and Pennycook also argues that a top-down modernist framework does not account for phenomena such as the indigenization of English instruction in Iran, as well as other local cultural products in English. Pennycook thus argues for analyzing these local forms of resistance through the situated practices approach and argues that this account is most appropriate for the changes CAL seeks to implement, namely decolonization. The fourth chapter continues in a similar vein, which explores how difference is politicized and connected to language. Pennycook takes the field of second language acquisition to task for viewing language as a cognitive phenomenon and removing it from its social context by ignoring factors of identity such as gender, class, and race, and in the end argues that language must be considered as embodied. Notions of performativity and subjectivity are also explored, and Pennycook argues that these must be seen as complex and overlapping, and not in dichotomous or detached categories. Intersectionality is subsequently explored, as well as links to Queer Theory and the recent developments it has introduced to CAL. In the fifth chapter, the politics of text is explored within the same frameworks of thought, and this chapter also includes an examination of critical discourse analysis (CDA), one of the fields that CAL is most often associated with in focus and ideology (though as Pennycook points out, the two fields are far from identical). An analysis of critical literacies is also included. Pennycook contrasts the structuralist and post-structuralist views on power and discourse (Discourse in the latter), as well as advocacy for access to powerful forms of speech and advocacy for inclusion of forms seen as oppressed. Pennycook argues that both frameworks are insufficient by themselves to arrive at a complete analysis of critical literacy, and that structuralist and poststructuralist approaches should be used complementarily.

In the sixth and seventh chapters, the volume turns towards education and praxis, and in the sixth chapter, the relationship between society and the classroom is explored in detail, especially with regards to student resistance, the construction of identity (e.g. the identity of EFL learner), as well as the reproduction of socially dominant narratives. This is then countered with discussions on voice and agency with respect to students’ self-expression. Pennycook then states that classrooms are at once connected to society and are special areas unto themselves, and that accordingly, questions of social power should be addressed within them. Finally, the seventh chapter briefly explores ways in which critical applied linguistics can be incorporated into education, research, and activism, especially via a means of critical pedagogy. After summarizing the concerns and ideas central to CAL, Pennycook ends the work with (and repeatedly states throughout) the assertion that the ideas and concerns put forward by CAL must be suitable for engendering action, and thus social change, as well as a change in the field of applied linguistics. Pennycook also states throughout the work that CAL must not become permanently attached to one framework or set of ideas, lest CAL no longer remain critical.

The change that Pennycook desires, as is explicitly stated throughout the volume, is to unsettle the field of critical applied linguistics, and thus Pennycook calls for greater attention to new fields of inquiry (e.g. Raciolingusitics and Queer Theory), including greater attention from the Global South. In other words, he begs for critical applied linguistics to come to terms with their colonial past of what counts as critical to broaden the scope for what should be included. At the same time, he makes explicit the idea that to be a critical applied linguist is to be in line with social change and transformation. This is probably his greatest contribution to the field: that the notion that to be critical means to work form perspectives that are decolonial and/or antiracist and recenter where knowledges are produced. Furthermore, Pennycook asks those in the field to not limit the exploration of critical thought to a week within their teaching of a course, but rather compels us to see how entire syllabi, for example, can be rooted in criticality from the varying fields of critical and posthumanist inquiry. It is important to keep in mind that what Pennycook is calling for is a ‘seat at the table’, as it were, for knowledges and understandings of language and their social embodiment that originate in formerly colonized areas. In considering these understandings, the field of applied linguistics, which concerns itself with how language is learned, acquired, and interacted with, stands to gain substantial breadth; it is critical applied linguists that lead this charge.

Accordingly, the ideal audience for this book is the linguist, language researcher, or instructor that has a curiosity or appetite for criticality, a keen interest in society and power, and a desire to change the status quo in the world of applied linguistics, as well as society. To these readers, the discussion of political and ideological frameworks, as well as their application to an analysis of language and power will be of particular interest. As one reads the edition, it becomes clear that there is so much breadth to Pennycook's argument, which is both a strength and weakness. In not subscribing to a specific paradigm and introducing the field of CAL to multiple fields of inquiry he wishes to emphasize the many directions on which criticality can embark.

This book is therefore not only useful to the language teacher or to the applied linguist, but also to a multidisciplinary array of scholars, such as the sociolinguist and the linguistic anthropologist. It provides a rich and broad perspective on several different theoretical paradigms of criticality, as well their intersection between questions of language, international exchange, and political economy. This book is incisive in providing relevant accounts of the context behind this complex and multifaceted intersection, and it also serves as a call to action for those who wish to change the present reality.