LIN8001 Learning activity 3.2

Learning activity 3.2: Long (1990) suggests that some of the current theories in SLA should be culled. By contrast, Lantolf (1996) in an article entitled 'SLA theory building: Letting all the flowers bloom!' seems to suggest the opposite. Which position would you take? Why?

I believe it is a self-evident truth of social sciences, especially those that are recently evolving, that the 'publish or perish imperative' is particularly potent. While we may hope that most theorists publish to promote the advancement of their field, I question whether the diversity between theories/models is at times more about making one's significant contribution by taking a polar and opposite view - which results in a research space that is especially cluttered with noise that one must filter to find sense through various egos.

While the establishment of 'tribes' of thought is a normal facet of theory development, and research and theorising in and of itself promotes the right of any theorist to have a voice, I believe that due balance must be given to theories that are supported by appropriate research, and less voice given to theories that are disproven by research, and to a lesser degree by peer-review. Where disproven or questionable theories are referenced in later works, the nature of their disproof should be published as part of the reference, as opposed to being used to support a further flawed logic.

A classic, unrelated example is that of Prensky's (2001) 'digital natives, digital immigrants' theory regarding a presumed distinction between younger and older learners as a result of being born/not born in an Internet-saturated age - while greatly lauded by the popular media and certain academics when first published, sufficient peer-driven (Bennet, Maton & Kervin, 2008, et al) doubt has been called to Prensky's theories to disallow them to be quoted verbatim as legitimate theories.


Bennett, S., Maton, K., & Kervin, L. (2008). The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence. British journal of educational technology, 39(5), 775-786.

Lantolf, J. (1996). SLA theory building: 'Letting all the flowers bloom!'. Language Learning, 46(4), 713-749

Long, M. (1990). The least a second language acquisition theory needs to explain. TESOL Quarterly, 24, 649-666

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the horizon, 9(5), 1-6.