In my presentation I argue, not for the first time, the need to rethink orthodox ideas about the relationship between applied linguistics and English language teaching that have been promoted in the past and still prevail. I will do this by taking up issues in questions that I invited colleagues to send me in advance; issues that I have discussed elsewhere, most recently in Widdowson (2019, 2020). Therefore, in many ways, this talk is a reformulation of views I have expressed in the past, but which, I would claim, have a direct relevance to the present.