The twentieth volume of ARAL, as an anniversary edition, explores the evolving discipline of applied linguistics from a variety of perspectives. Rather than ask fifteen authors to provide general positions on the status of applied linguistics, the invitation to contribute to ARAL 20 asked authors to consider the status of applied linguistics from the perspective of their own fields of study and major topical issues. Contributors received a small set of questions asking them to situate their own fields of study within a framework informed by applied linguistics. For example, contributors were asked 1) how their own research sub-fields were located within applied linguistics, 2) how applied linguistics will make the strongest contributions in the coming decade---from the perspective of their own sub-fields, and 3) what obstacles confront their sub-fields and applied linguistics more generally. Some of the authors have addressed these issues explicitly while others have recognized more implicitly the frame of reference that is provided by applied linguistics.