Review: Language Teaching: Surveys and Studies

Language Teaching (henceforth LT) is one of our field’s longest running (since 1968) and most prestigious journals; getting published in it is only slightly short of getting knighted by the Queen. All exaggeration aside, LT’s most distinctive characteristic is its variety of article formats, including Plenary speeches, Research timelines, A country in focus, A language in focus, Surveys of PhD/ED.D theses, Annual reviews of research, Research in progress and the Comparative book reviews. I will look at these various types of article below.

Plenary speeches tend to be the highlight of language teaching conferences: seasoned professionals giving insightful and inspiring talks on prominent teaching and learning issues. While some of those featured in LT are dense with argumentation and theory, and others are more anecdotal and far-reaching in appeal, the level of quality rarely dips, making the plenary speeches section a more often than not pleasurable, and always informative read. To catch up on what you missed at some of the big conferences, you need not suffer financial crises, jet lag, pressed schedules and student dorms as long as you subscribe to LT! Recent plenaries in the journal include the speakers Carol Chapelle, Elaine Tarone, David Little and James Lantolf.

I will now try to synthesize seven sections which share a number of features: State-of-the-art, Research timeline, A country in focus, A language in focus, Surveys of PhD/ED.D theses, Annual review of research, and Research in progress. All of these sections report on recent developments in the field of language teaching and learning. Their aim appears to be to provide up-to-date reviews of research across the width and breadth of the discipline, thereby giving readers a unique source of references with which to conduct their own research enquiries.

The State-of-the-art review articles are staple-food for academics needing a contemporary overview of a specific area; they are one of the best ways I know to get a wealth of information and references for a particular research question, in minimal time. It is rare to come across reviews of doctoral research (Surveys of PhD/ED.D theses) and I think it is equally rare to find a review of discipline specific research conducted in a particular country (A country in focus; e.g. the July 2009 issue on research in Singapore between 2000 and 2007) or particular language (A language in focus; e.g. German in Jan 2009). These novel themes give LT an edge in the highly competitive market for academic journals, and provide succinct summaries of immense value for interested parties. The Annual review of research articles are equally valuable, particularly for researchers and postgraduates, but also for teachers who want to keep abreast of research trends.

The Research in progress articles give an overview of studies being conducted within a particular university, their research themes and activities, and language teaching and learning related departments (e.g. the University of Southampton, U.K., in July 2009). This is an excellent source of information for a number of reasons. For teaching professionals wishing to pursue postgraduate courses, the papers give a nice introduction to potential universities. It also creates a sense of community by informing readers of current research themes; and consequently, it encourages research collaboration and sharing of information across a geographically distributed field. Finally, the Research timelines are a goldmine of subject-specific annotated references of seminal and critical studies produced during a given period (often from initial studies to present) that have contributed significant knowledge that has led to advancement in the research area.

Lastly, a quick mention should be given to the Comparative book review articles, as they are a particularly good read. In the July 2009 issue, Stuart Webb reviews four books on L2 vocabulary, providing a useful synthesis and giving a picture of recent issues and research in second language vocabulary acquisition and teaching. (Naturally, you still get more for your money with TEFL.net reviews though!)

The 2009 volume which I have been referring to in this review covers a wide range of issues, with article titles including ‘The use of statistics in L2 acquisition research’, ‘Discourses of identity’, ‘Assessing intercultural capability in learning languages’, ‘Community, semiotic flows, and mediated contribution to activity’, ‘Assessing academic writing in foreign and second languages’, ‘Negotiated interaction in the L2 classroom’, ‘Multilingual education policy and practice’, ‘Second language vocabulary acquisition from language input and from form-focused activities’, and much more besides.

In sum, the subject matter of LT is academic research into language learning and teaching, so the material is serious stuff. Researchers in applied linguistics and language education will be well served by this journal, as will teachers who want to keep up-to-date with academic developments in the field. For current prices check the Cambridge Journals website, but for 2010 annual subscription including online access to current and previous issues will cost you 40 GBP /75 USD for an individual, plus more for institutional access. The price is quite reasonable for an academic journal, and with accessible online back issues the figure seems all the more affordable. At least checking out a free sample issue is very much a must.