An editorial interface: A retrospective/prospective account

This issue of Journal of Applied Linguistics (JAL) is effectively (in terms of date of publication) the last issue to appear under this title, although JAL 6.3 predates the publication of this issue: the latter had to be issued at an earlier date in order to coincide with and to honour the work of Ron Scollon who died in 2009. Since that time it has been an unusually long period of gestation, for which an editorial apology is in place, followed by an extended account. First and foremost, it is fitting to pay tribute to my founding co-editor, Chris Candlin, who passed away on 10 May 2015, prior to the publication of this issue. His death has most certainly created an intellectual and professional void which will prove very hard to fill. Given our three-decades-long companionship I feel his absence on a daily basis although much of the time we collaborated ‘from a distance’. It is a strange coincidence that this delayed JAL issue turned out to be a prospective place-holder to announce this sad news. A more worthy occasion is being earmarked to celebrate Chris Candlin’s generous gifts to the community of applied linguists through this journal and beyond. As the very final edition of JAL, this issue also marks, retrospectively, the transition in 2010 to the re-launching of JAL under the expanded title of Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (JALPP) – intended as a point of departure to re-specify the scope of Applied Linguistics. Throughout Chris Candlin has remained an integral part of this transition as evidenced by the inaugural editorial we co-wrote to herald an alternative research-cum-practice agenda for the future of Applied Linguistics (Sarangi and Candlin 2010). The