The starting point for this collection is a chapter by Dick Allwright
on the language learning and teaching classroom experience entitled Six Promising Directions in Applied Linguistics.
The other distinguished contributors respond to this discussion with
their own interpretations and from their own experience. The collection
problematizes prescription,
efficiency, and technical solutions as orientations to classroom
language learning. Complexity and idiosyncrasy, on the other hand, are
recognized as central concepts in a move towards centralizing teachers'
and learners' own understanding of "classroom life", in the contexts of
language learning, adult literacy education and language teacher
education.