BREAKING TRADITION: AN EXPLORATION OF THE HISTORICALRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE IN SECOND LANGUAGETEACHING.Diane Musumeci. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Pp. xiii + 142.$24.07 paper.

Abstract

In her engrossing account of the historical relationship between theory and practice in second language teaching, Diane Musumeci observes that in the often contentious discussions about this relationship “the one point on which almost everyone agrees is that scant evidence exists to support any single, unified theory of language learning” (p. 3). In Breaking Tradition: An Exploration of the Historical Relationship Between Theory and Practice in Second Language Teaching, Musumeci convincingly argues that the claim that there has been no consistent theory of second language teaching is not only ahistorical but has also discouraged critical investigation of the ideas of tradition and innovation in the field.