Review: M.H. Long's Problems in SLA

Readers expecting a delicate, diplomatic treatment of unresolved topics of inquiry in second language acquisition (SLA) will be surprised by the unabashed examination of SLA theories and theory construction in Problems in SLA. Author Michael Long boldly calls for the comparative evaluation of SLA theories, rather than the proliferation of theories present in the field today. Long encourages ‘rational inquiry and empirical research’ (p. 167). He praises the field for its advances, indicating, ‘SLA has furnished far from complete, but very much improved, data-based understandings of many aspects of language learning, both in and out of classrooms’ (p. 163). In addition, he implores researchers to make strides toward accepting or rejecting SLA theories. At the same time, Long uses the book as a forum with which to rebut critics such as Lantolf, Block, and Sheen, whose arguments he dispels in a pointed and mercurial tone.