Traduzione e Interpretazione

“Controversies in Applied Linguistics” by B. Seidlhofer

Why controversies? To say it with the editor’s words “Some people shy away from ‘adversarial exchanges’ and think you cannot learn from them. I, however, think you can, and my students tell me they do. So although we sometimes refer to scholars airing their differences in public as an ‘unedifying spectacle’, I believe, on the contrary, that this form of debate can in fact be edifying” (Seidlhofer, 2003: 1).

I could not agree more with Barbara Seidlhofer, since this volume really gave me the opportunity to know academic life for what it is, a realm of uncertainty where well-known scholars discuss their, and others, points of view.

Schooled as we are to accept authority rather than challenge it, we (students) need books helping us to become more critical, books we do not simply study with admiration but also agree, or disagree, with.

This is it: a book for people in Applied Linguistics and Language Education. A book where to pick up topics that may be important for your job, without needing to read extensively in the following areas:

-    The global spread of English;
-    Corpus linguistics and language teaching;
-    Critical discourse analysis;
-    Second language acquisition;
-    The nature of applied linguistics.

In my opinion, you really ought to read the Introduction, and Section 2 about Corpus linguistics and language teaching: it is extremely useful to get to know the questions raised by Widdowson about direct application of corpus data to language teaching.

Seidlhofer, B. (ed.). (2003). Controversies in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press

2 Responses to ““Controversies in Applied Linguistics” by B. Seidlhofer”

  1. Natacha scrive:

    I forgot to tell you that this book also makes you see how others may challenge whatever you say and write, hence helping you become more aware of possible objections, criticisms and praises ;)

  2. Assala scrive:

    Hi Natacha, I ‘m doing a research currently about Verbal Language Vs Body Language. Can this book help me in the field of this study???
    Thank you in advance.

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