Weideman, 2017. Responsible design in Applied Linguistics: Theory and practice

In this volume, it is Albert Weideman’s declared intention to help the reader discover the philosophical foundations of the theoretical endeavours of applied linguists and appreciate applied linguistics as a discipline of design–a discipline which is to be primarily concerned with developing responsible, or theoretically informed, solutions to concrete language problems. He does so by taking us on a journey that traces the phased historical development of the discipline which takes into account, systematically, the various turning points in that development. Both historical and systematic perspectives form what he terms the theoretical backbone of his text. Just as the author takes us through the systematic development of applied linguistics as a design discipline, we will take the reader through the different chapters of the volume. In our review, we will discuss the various philosophical theses and assertions that lie at the foundations of the field and offer our evaluation of the author's proposed framework.