SLA Theory Building: “Letting All the Flowers Bloom!”

This article presents a postmodernist critical analysis of the SLA theory building‐literature as primarily represented in the writings of Beretta, Crookes, Eubank, Gregg, Long, and to some extent Schumann. I argue that there is no foundational reason to grant privileged status to the modernist view of SLA theory these scholars espouse. Scientific theories are metaphorical constructs that are elevated to theoretical status because they are “taken seriously” by their developers. All of which argues against cutting off any would‐be SLA theory before it has the opportunity to be taken seriously (i.e., to bloom).