On 29 and 30 May 2014, this seminar was hosted at Lews Castle College, University of the Highlands and Islands and organised by BAAL member, Dr. Cassie Smith-Christmas. In total, there were 16 participants from 13 universities across the UK. A total of nine papers were delivered over the two days and an hour-long roundtable was held at the close…

As applied linguists know very well, how we use language both constructs and reflects our understanding. It is therefore important that we use terms that do justice to our concerns. In this presentation, I suggest that a more apt designation than "multilingual" or "second language acquisition" (SLA) is "multilingual"…

Taking 1925, the founding year of "Language", the journal of the Linguistics Society of America, as a benchmark for "the past", and 2015 as benchmark for "the present", the author considers what was known then and what is known now about second language acquisition in applied linguistics. The field has grown more…

The current paper explores the silent behavior of students within EFL classrooms. It investigates reasons behind students' in-class silence, or lack of verbal participation, and then puts forwards several suggested solutions for more effective in-class conversation. The population for this study consists of 85 English-major students at a…

Scholars have argued for the inclusion of different spoken varieties of English in high-stakes listening tests to better represent the global use of English. However, doing so may introduce additional construct-irrelevant variance due to accent familiarity and the shared first language (L1) advantage, which could threaten test fairness. However,…

Studies have shown that language assessment literacy (LAL) is important for language teachers since they make important classroom decisions to improve student learning based on their assessment. However, some studies have shown that teachers need more knowledge and skills in assessment. Teachers also seem unconfident in assessing their students…

Research engagement and exploratory dialogue are central to forms of practitioner inquiry such as action research, in particular with regard to developing conceptual knowledge before action. Recently, practitioners have started engaging with technology such as podcasts as a way to facilitate opportunities for these focused interactions to take…

Acknowledgement appears at the forefront of the high-stakes academic genre of thesis/dissertation writing. Previous research shows the generic structure of acknowledgements written by native Persian postgraduate students contains a 'thanking-God move', absent in native English speakers' acknowledgements. In an approximate replication of Hyland's…

This paper draws on autoethnographical insights and genre analysis in offering an introductory guide for writing a manuscript-style master's level thesis or doctoral dissertation in TESOL and Applied Linguistics fields. We report on our own recent experiences writing, defending, and preparing for publication from our own manuscript-style…

Although co-authoring is commonly practised, we know little about its actual process. How do authors choose their collaborators? How do they make decisions about the writing process? What obstacles do they face and how do they overcome them? What do they see as the benefits and pitfalls of coauthoring? This article begins by demonstrating the…

This paper conducts a theoretical examination of an evidence-based approach (EBA) to research on language policy and language-in-education policy (LPLEP), as well as a methodological examination of the feasibility of evidence-based LPLEP research based on actual studies. Theoretical scrutiny, based on EBA's core concepts--evidence hierarchy,…

Little research has been conducted on the professional identities of L2 writing scholars despite the increasing number of researchers, teachers, and graduate students identifying themselves as L2 writing specialists. While the (re)construction of L2 writing scholars' professional identities have real consequences for their career, the challenges…

This paper presents a story of applied linguistics from my personal vantage point as a multilingual scholar whose career began outside the centers of research and scholarship. The article explains the assumptions and practices characterizing the foundation of the discipline in modernist discourses, and delineates the changes resulting from…

Applied linguists have been exploring approaches to second language acquisition and competence that move beyond a prioritization of cognition and grammar that was derived from the foundational structuralist legacy in linguistics. Recently, for example, they have collaborated in putting together an integrated alternative model (Douglas Fir Group,…

The present paper attempts to provide a critical evaluation of the most prominent pedagogical models that have dealt with the language of the second language (L2) learner starting from the second half of the 20th century. The three most influential approaches in the domain are investigated in this study: contrastive analysis (CA), error analysis…