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|a Debate and discussion are crucial for the advancement of our fields in order to understand the phenomena we seek to explain. When these debates are cast from an adversarial position, the value of the discussion is lost. In this sense, we are disappointed by the acrimony of de Bot's reaction to our Forum essay. Most of his points, even those he characterizes as 'beyond doubt', are anecdotal and subjectively selected, whereas others are plainly wrong, such as his contention that generative second language acquisition (GenSLA) presentations have virtually disappeared from major conferences. One need only look at the programs of recent and upcoming conferences (e.g. the Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition conference, the Boston University Conference on Language Development), graduate programs that continue to provide doctoral-level preparation in GenSLA,1 and well-established journals (e.g. Second Language Research, Studies in Second Language Acquisition) to be assured that GenSLA is an intellectually vigorous field of science.
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