In this article, we survey the debates and questions relating to scalar approaches in the social sciences. Based on a critical review of emergent scholarship, we propose the adoption of scales as a category of practice, arguing that how scales are defined, their relationships conceived, and related to other social categories should be based on how people and institutions adopt scales in relation to their contexts and interests. Based on this position, we review the application of scales in educational linguistics and outline the questions that need to be further explored to make more constructive contributions to the appropriate unit of analysis, the relationship between context and language, and the connections between language and other semiotic resources in learning.