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Theory in an Applied Field
Author(s) -
CUMMING ALISTER
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.1002/j.1545-7249.2008.tb00119.x
Subject(s) - citation , library science , literacy , field (mathematics) , computer science , sociology , pedagogy , mathematics , pure mathematics
The place of theory in TESOL is uncertain—in the association, in the field as a whole, and in the present journal. To set a context for discussion of key issues, and to initiate principled deliberation about them, I have created, for the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly, the following fictitious situation: a university task force, a memorandum in response to a report that might have been—but never was—written, and a character who could be a well-intentioned vice-president of a university anywhere (but who certainly is not the vice-president at my university, which has never had a department called TESOL). I invite responses from a variety of perspectives. What is, and should be, the place of theories in TESOL? How might that place figure in respect to other scholarly and professional fields?