Preface to the 20th Anniversary Issue

With our Spring 2021 volume, Studies in Applied Linguistics & TESOL (SALT) celebrates its twentieth anniversary. The journal was founded in 2001, originally called Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. In the late 1990s, a young faculty member ZhaoHong Han joined the TESOL and Applied Linguistics Program at Teachers College. Inspired by a journal published by the University of Hawaii called Working Papers in ESL Studies -- one that evolved over time into a very influential outlet, Dr. Han wanted to create synergy among doctoral students across the three tracks of SLA, assessment and language use, offering them authentic editorial experience as well as a platform to publish their work-in-progress. The web journal was subsequently founded to be a place of incubation, a venue where students and scholars could experiment with ongoing ideas for their research and receive feedback from multiple perspectives. The journal grew to garner an international reputation over the years and changed its name to SALT in 2019.

Letters to Grandma: A Comparison of Generational Perspectives of Women's Growth as Higher Education Faculty

This ethnographic compilation is the result of a course exercise in qualitative research. A current student of Texas Tech University interviewed an 87-yearold faculty member from the 1950s, comparing her experiences to those of the author in similar, present-day academic environments. The author developed the format of the paper as letters between a young faculty member and her experienced grandmother. Results of the study reflect many similarities between the experiences of past female faculty members and female faculty of today; the exercise does convey, however, many advances for women in the academic culture as well. Finally, the recorded experiences of the older woman support those scenarios highlighted in the study of higher education’s history.

"Walking on two legs in Chinese law schools": A Chinese/U.S. Program in Experimental Legal Education

Dong Jingbo, a young faculty member at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, used to teach using only the traditional lecture technique which she had experienced in her own legal education in China and Korea. Until, that is, Professor Dong attended summer workshops given by Pacific McGeorge, in partnership with American University’s Washington College of Law, and also earned an LL.M. at Pacific McGeorge, in the Teaching of Advocacy. Her classes no longer are limited to lecture. She has developed a simulation to use in Chinese criminal law classes, has demonstrated it to other Chinese law professors and has written a law review article about it.2 The simulation is based on a news story about a man who used his wife’s ATM card to make two successive withdrawals of 10,000 RMB, while the receipts reflected a total withdrawal of only 2 RMB, and even though his wife had only 10,000 RMB in her account. The man was charged with theft. Professor Dong assigns students to play the role of the prosecutor, defense counsel and judge. They are given the definition of theft, and must argue and decide the case. She then provides a series of additional facts, requiring deeper analysis. Introduction of this role play into the class builds on learning theory to provide deeper understanding of the elements of the crime of theft than a student could obtain by listening to a lecture. Moreover, this learning by doing encourages analysis, fact development, understanding of the important role of the theory of the case, and independent thinking. For these reasons, and as our experience in China affirms, role play is a useful learning method in traditional, simulation, and clinical law courses.

Research Action in Many Worlds

This autobiographical account describes the evolution of the author's research interests and methods of inquiry. Early life experiences at home, in school, and the Peace Corps are discussed in terms of their impact on his professional life. Initial research and consulting work as a graduate student raised issues that reappeared in the author's experiences as a young faculty member and later as a researcher and consultant in organizational aspects of social change and development in international settings. The following four concerns emerge as major themes of the author's life and work: social development and social justice; using action research to solve specific problems and develop new ideas; working at the interfaces among different groups, organizations, and cultures; and using multiple levels of analysis to understand social dynamics and problems.