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.

Maintaining Dialogue in Remote English Classes

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about one of our students who has disclosed to my CT (Cooperating Teacher) that she has been living on her own for the past two semesters and works full time to support herself. Due to her work schedule, she goes through periods of time when she is unable to attend classes, and other periods of time when she can. She asked my CT to reach out to her other teachers about her situation so that they know why her attendance is sporadic. I worked with this student in our afternoon classes, which my CT had decided to reserve for making up work at the end of the marking period.

The Role of Theory in L2 Empirical Research on Language Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency

This forum attempts to uncover the role played by theory in three empirical studies. To that end, in the sections that follow, I will begin with the review of literature on language complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Next, I will report on metric indices employed in the studies to measure the phenomenon of linguistic complexity and the results pertaining to grammatical and lexical complexity. Then I proceed with describing the status of theory in empirical research and the challenges research on CAF faces. The closing presents the discussion on how theory impacted the design of the empirical studies sampled for this paper.

Reaching Kinesthetic Learners Over Distance

Erickson, a New York City high school student, and I were working on his algebra homework over Zoom, specifically parabolas. We broke down the motion of a basketball and compared it to a parabola. He happened to have a small hoop on the back of his door and when he tried the motion himself, it was clear something clicked. You see, Erickson is a kinesthetic learner. During the pandemic, it has been challenging to design interactive materials and lessons for different types of learners. Distance learning disproportionality favors visual learners, followed by aural; however, reaching our kinesthetic learners has been a challenge.

Are You There?

With or without cameras on, my students always feel out of reach to me. There is a screen--and a few boroughs, in some cases even states or countries--between us. I can’t tell how they’re feeling; I can’t watch their faces or their hands as they work on a piece for our writing class. The whole enterprise has started to feel epistolary. I am never sure if my recipient is going to respond, or if they’ve even received what I’ve sent them. I leave comments that may or may not be read. I send emails that sit in student inboxes, stacked between hundreds of others. In Zoom class, every question I ask feels like a million questions, and a gamble: Will you respond aloud, or will I see a response pop up in the chat? Do you need time to think? Is your internet slow? Are you there?

The Role of Theory in Empirical Second Language Acquisition Research: An Introduction

Theory plays a central role in the development of human knowledge. In essence, theory solves puzzles, or questions about observable phenomena that need to be answered, (Kuhn, 1996). Theorizing about solutions to these puzzles requires working at the edge of uncertainty, making bold postulations, and engaging in what renowned philosopher of science Karl Popper terms critical rationalism; it is through the development of theories that are falsifiable and the subsequent empirical testing of those theories that our knowledge about the world (i.e., of natural phenomena) will progress (Popper, 1968).

The Role of Sociocultural Theory in L2 Empirical Research

Second language acquisition (SLA) is a complex, interdisciplinary field of study which has its roots in subjects as varied as cognition and psychology to social applications and actions in anthropology and sociology (Han & Nassaji, 2019). One of the oldest and most influential ideas in SLA comes from the sociocultural perspective and, in particular, the work of Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky. Nearly a century ago, Vygotsky attempted to connect the seemingly disparate areas of society, culture, and cognition in his unifying, wide-angle theory called Sociocultural Theory (SCT).

The Role of Theory in SLA Empirical Research on the Critical Period Hypothesis

This paper sets out to peruse the role of various theories or more precisely, hypotheses invoked in SLA research by surveying three empirical studies pertaining to the critical period hypothesis in the SLA of phonetics and phonology. In particular, the three studies which will be reviewed in the next section are titled in chronological order as (1) A critical period for learning to pronounce foreign languages? (Flege, 1987); (2) Reexamining the critical period hypothesis: A case study of successful adult SLA in a naturalistic environment. (Ioup et al., 1994); (3) Ultimate attainment in L2 Phonology: The Critical Factors of Age, Motivation, and Instruction (Moyer, 1999).

Engaging with ELL Students in Their Personal Writing

I am currently a student teacher at a charter school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My class is a self-contained 7th and 8th grade ELL classroom, where the cooperating teacher (CT) teaches all content classes. In English Language Arts (ELA) this month, students were assigned to write a personal friendship story. Prior to writing, students were asked to fill out a graphic organizer with three columns: (1) My Friends, (2) Places I have Friends, and (3) Things I like to do with Friends.

What was it like to be an ESL teacher in 2020? Reflections from the prek-12 community

Suddenly, with the advent of COVID-19, our familiar teaching tools disappeared. How, in a two-dimensional world, were teachers to connect with students? This is a question we have all been asking ourselves since last spring — and when we began to discuss this forum, it was the question we posed to our community. We asked student teachers, cooperating teachers, and student-teacher supervisors to reflect on a single moment from this past year. We hoped to document — and to share — a few moments from the actual experience being an ESL teacher during the 2020 school year.