Call for Papers on a Special Issue on Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Studies: Intertheory Dialogues and (In-)commensurabilities

Guest Editors:

Saeed Karimi-Aghdam, Associate Professor of English Language and Didactics, Faculty of Education and Arts, Nord University, Norway; email: saeed.karimi.aghdam@nord.no

Rémi Adam van Compernolle, Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition and French and Francophone Studies, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University, USA; email: vancomp@andrew.cmu.edu

 

The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Advances and Dynamics (JALDA) invites paper proposals for a special issue devoted to the topic of intertheory dialogue and (in)commensurability between Vygotskian sociocultural theory (SCT) and other approaches to second language (L2) development.

SCT scholars have increasingly drawn on exogenous theories of language and learning/development as well as methods for analyzing language, discourse, and interaction in their work in the early 2000s. In addition, SCT insights have become part of mainstream L2 research and are often invoked in non- SCT research. However, it is not always clear whether, or in what ways, SCT and other approaches to L2 research are commensurable. To promote progress in the field of second language studies, it is crucial that we examine for the intertheoretic commensurability of the distinct theoretical approaches to second language learning. The aim of this Special Issue is, therefore, to offer a substantive discussion of the compatibility of SCT and other theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of L2 development. We believe that casting systematic new light on concepts, categories, frameworks, philosophical undercurrents, and ways of thinking about learning a second language from multiple theoretical vantage points will contribute to conceptual clarity, pluralistic integration where appropriate, and synthesizing corpuses of empirical findings.

We welcome empirical as well as conceptual contributions that explore the relationship between SCT and other theories of L2 development and that help to generate novel theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights for the field. We are particularly interested in papers that critically engage with one or more of the following topics:

  1. Operationalizations of language, discourse, and interaction
  2. Operationalizations of language learning and/or development
  3. Operationalizing evidence of language learning and/or development
  4. Contributions to language teaching research and practice
  5. Commensurability of ontological assumptions and/or epistemological underpinnings
  6. Contributions to a coherent and pluralistic (meta)theory of L2 development

 

Guidelines

 Authors are invited to submit a paper proposal of up to 500 words using the following Google Form here by September 1, 2021. Authors who are invited to contribute a full paper will be asked to submit first drafts for peer review by April 1, 2022.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions will be evaluated on a double-blind peer-review basis and should be formatted accordingly. Follow the author guidelines (regarding abstract, reference format, etc.) for JALDA that can be found here.

 

JALDA is an international peer-reviewed open access biannual journal published by Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University Press.