Echoing Bakhtin's assertion of the importance of a dialogic approach to the study of language and literature and Kramsch's (1995) view that exploring differences is more important than achieving consensus, Seidlhofer's book focuses on the analysis of a collection of readings from original works by authors with opposing views on several topics in applied linguistics.

To illustrate the dynamism of academic polemical discourse, Seidlhofer chooses five general controversial themes: the global spread of English, corpus linguistics and language teaching, critical discourse analysis, second language acquisition, and the nature of applied linguistics. Each of these themes contains between one and three controversies, which, in kind, are exemplified by two to six complete texts (in chronological order) with opposing viewpoints. For each section of the book, Seidlhofer provides the reader with an advance organizer (e.g., background information of the importance of the controversy) with which to understand the actual papers involved in a given polemic. Next follows a seminal text within a given controversy, followed by reactions from other scholars, which then often leads to a response from the original author—for example, Widdowson (1995) is criticized by Fairclough (1996), and Widdowson responds (1996). Finally, Seidlhofer provides substantial sections on further reading on each topic.

To facilitate the reader's understanding of the arguments presented, Seidlhofer provides generalized study questions, which can be applied to any one of the five controversies covered in the book. The questions involve the content and organization of the argument, the expression and style of the argument, and reader reaction.

Although several books on applied linguistics have critically reviewed controversial topics in the field of applied linguistics (e.g., McCarthy, 2001; McDonough, 2002), Seidlhofer's book is unique in that it provides readers with the raw materials for coming to their own understanding of opposing points of view that researchers in applied linguistics have expressed in academic publications. By bringing together, in a concise manner, published texts with very different views on the same topic, but which do not naturally occur together in print, this volume provides a service to applied linguists, lecturers, and postgraduate students, and those involved in teacher education, who recognize the importance of these controversies to their professions but lack time and accessible library resources to read extensively on these topics.

The depth of understanding that Seidlhofer brings to a breadth of controversial topics is impressive. However, sometimes her insightful discussion of details within a given complex controversy and her assumption that the reader is already familiar with many terms (e.g., behaviorism and the contrastive analysis hypothesis, which she does not define in the text or in footnotes) make the prose less accessible to readers just starting out in the field.

The approach taken in this book—recognizing the value of engendering critical imagination in scholarly discourse—is one that will undoubtedly provide a solid foundation for readers to become engaged with important controversies in the field and will facilitate the honing of argumentation skills in students and practitioners of applied linguistics.