In this issue... TESOL Quarterly 49.2

In This Issue doi: 10.1002/tesq.231 T his editorial includes four sections: a discussion of publication trends in TESOL Quarterly (TQ) based on a recent review by Liu and Berger (2015), an update on TQ trends during 2014, an introduction to the contents of this issue, and an update on the editorial board of the journal. In their recent book, TESOL: A Guide, Jun Liu and Cynthia Berger (2015) include an analysis of research published in TQ since its inception in 1967 through to 2011 as one source of data to describe trends in research in TESOL. Based on this analysis, they note that (1) there has been a sharp rise in research on English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts (including research on English as lingua franca) in the last 20 years; (2) of the research in lingua franca contexts, there is more research done in the Asian and Asia Pacific contexts than in any other region of the world; and (3) in general, there is more research done in tertiary contexts, but there has been a recent (re)surge in research on young learners and on English for specific purposes (ESP) issues. They also identify recent upward and downward trends in TESOL research based on their analysis of TQ articles. They state that the areas with an upward trend include language use and sociolinguistics, policy and standards, learners and language learning, and language elements; and those with downward trends include second language acquisition (SLA), teacher and teacher development, curriculum and materials, methodology, assessment, and language skills. As editors of TQ, our own review of publications in the journal corroborate their observations. We should add, however, that publications in TQ reflect only a small proportion of the papers that TQ receives. Thus, what is published in the journal is not always a complete indication of research that is being carried out in the field. All publications in TQ are peer-reviewed, and hence not all submissions make it through to publication. Papers on certain topics thus may not be included because of the impact of this process. Further, we have seen a surge in the number of journals, including specialized journals, published in the last couple of decades. Thus, authors may choose to submit their papers to journals that focus on an area of subspecialization or to another journal of their choice rather than to TQ (see also the TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 49, No. 2, June 2015 © 2015 TESOL International Association 221 recently released TESOL research agenda available at http://www. tesol.org/docs/default-source/pdf/2014_tesol-research-agenda.pdf for further discussion of research directions in TESOL). Continuing with the theme of trends of publication in TQ, we track the range of topics, methodologies adopted, and countries where authors are based (by institutional affiliation) on an annual basis. Our review of TQ publications in 2014 shows that the topics covered in research articles were adult English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL), collaborative dialogue and pairwork, English for academic purposes, ESL in schools, feedback, identity, individual differences, language learning strategies, research methods, motivation, multimodality, nonnative-English-speaking (NNES) teaching versus nativespeaking (NS) teaching norms, pronunciation, reading, sociocultural theory, speaking, study abroad, teacher development, testing, and willingness to communicate. Amongst these, the most frequent topics of research articles that were published in regular issues were adult EFL, individual differences, pronunciation, speaking, and willingness to communicate. Research approaches employed in research articles in 2014 were case studies, conversation analysis, ethnography, experiments, quasi-experiments, interviews, mixed methods, reading tasks, surveys and questionnaires, and theoretical discussions. Amongst these, most frequent were survey- and questionnaire-based studies, followed by case studies and mixed methods. The countries represented (in terms of institutional affiliation) in research articles published in 2014 were Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The highest number of research articles published in regular issues came from the United States, followed by Canada and South Korea. Based on this review, we observe that submissions (if any) from Africa, the Middle East, South and Central America, and South and South East Asia did not make their way into TQ in 2014. We, as editors of TQ, are committed to diversifying the voices included in the journal and we continue to invite research on matters of interest to a worldwide TQ readership from different contexts and using different research approaches. The current issue of TQ includes six full-length articles, two brief reports and summaries, two articles focusing on research issues, and one book review. The authors of these articles are affiliated with universities in Australia, Canada, China, Greece, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In “Analyzing Storytelling in TESOL Interview Research,” Gabriele Kasper and Matthew T. Prior adopt conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, and occasioned semantics in support of autobiographical research in TESOL. In order to do so, they analyze how stories are produced in interactive interviews and study interactional 222 TESOL QUARTERLY practices of adult migrants and their interlocutors. Their article explores how adult migrants and their interviewers use sequence organization and turn design to achieve their communicative goals. In a quasi-experimental project, Christo Moskovsky, Guowu Jiang, Alan Libert, and Seamus Fagan investigate the effectiveness of two modes of academic English vocabulary instruction in “Bottom-Up or Top-Down: English as a Foreign Language Vocabulary Instruction for Chinese University Students.” Their study, focusing on Chinese university students, suggests that the bottom-up group outperformed the topdown one marginally on vocabulary size; however, the results were not statistically significant in tests of controlled-productive knowledge. Chun Lai, Weimin Zhu, and Gang Gong explore which out-of-class activities help students more in “Understanding the Quality of Outof-Class English Learning.” Based on a survey of 87 middle school EFL students, they note that out-of-class activities should maintain a balance between focus on form and focus on meaning. They also note that students’ out-of-class activities could be influenced by both parents and teachers. Cynthia D. Nelson and Roslyn Appleby highlight the importance and relevance of further research and discussion of English language teaching in peace–conflict contexts and their aftermath. In their article “Conflict, Militarization, and Their After-Effects: Key Challenges for TESOL” the authors provide a broad review of relevant literature and argue that this work needs to be used to help teachers be better prepared and to facilitate students who have or are experiencing difficult situations. Sandra Zappa-Hollman and Patricia A. Duff, in “Academic English Socialization Through Individual Networks of Practice,” introduce the notion of individual networks of practice and illustrate how it can be applied to investigate academic (discourse) socialization in second language contexts. Zappa and Duff argue that their work can help others (including researchers, educators, and students) better understand and utilize social processes that mediate learning. In the final full-length article in this issue of TQ, “Reading Comprehension in Test Preparation Classes: An Analysis of Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in TESOL,” Christine Irvine-Niakaris and Richard Kiely investigate the pedagogical content knowledge of experienced teachers in test preparation classes and its effect on pedagogy. Their research shows that teachers vary and adapt their teaching practices based on their training and experience and do so with an understanding of the main purpose of the program that they teach in. This issue also includes two brief reports and summaries, two research issues, and one book review. The brief reports include Soria E. Colomer’s “Positioning Spanish Teachers as Ad Hoc ESOL Teachers” and Ricky Lam’s “Feedback About Self-Regulation: Does It IN THIS ISSUE 223 Remain an “Unfinished Business” in Portfolio Assessment of Writing?” The two research issues contributions include Andrew D. Cohen and  Carol Griffiths’s “Revisiting LLS Research 40 Years Later” and Angeles Broca’s “Questionnaires on L2 Learning and Teaching Practices: Rating Responses on Frequency and Opinions.” Finally, this issue includes a review by Clare Furneaux of Selim Ben Said and Lawrence Jun Zhang’s edited volume Language Teachers and Teaching: Global Perspectives, Local Initiatives. This issue also contains a call for proposals for the 2017 special topic issue of the journal. Proposals are chosen by the TQ Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) and the guest editor(s) are responsible for overseeing the review process and selecting the content of the issue. For a sample proposal, or to submit a proposal, please contact Brian Paltridge or Ahmar Mahboob. The quality of work that TQ is able to achieve is heavily supported by our colleagues in the field. These include members of our Editorial Advisory Board as well as many others who generously donate their time and expertise to review submissions to the journal. We sincerely thank the members of the Editorial Advisory Board who are rotating off with this issue and thank them for the contribution they have made to the journal. These members include: Dwight Atkinson, Purdue University Christine Pearson Casanave, Temple University, Japan Alice Yin Wa Chan, City University of Hong Kong Scott Crossley, Georgia State University Kerry Enright, University of California, Davis K. James Hartshorn, Brigham Young University Julianne House, University of Hamburg Mark James, Arizona State University Icy Lee, Chinese University of Hong Kong Yongyan Li, University of Hong Kong Ron Martinez, San Francisco State University Lia Plakans, University of Iowa Ivor Timmis, Leeds Metropolitan University Stuart Webb, Western University Hyunsook Yoon, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies The following people have agreed to join the editorial advisory board and we thank them for agreeing to perform this important service to the journal: Christian Chun, University of New South Wales Sally Humphrey, Australian Catholic University 224 TESOL QUARTERLY Ruanni Tupas, National Institute of Education, Singapore Ali Fuad Selvi, Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus Okim Kang, Northern Arizona University We would also like to thank Lia Plakans who has stepped down as the co-editor of the Brief Reports and Summaries section of the journal. We welcome Mary Jane Curry as the new co-editor of this section. Diane Pecorari, who last year we inadvertently listed as coming off the EAB, remains on the EAB in her role as Book Review editor for the journal. Finally, over the past year, we have reviewed the composition and role of the EAB and have found that even though members commit to reviewing papers for the journal, their schedules have not always allowed them to do so. We also noted that while it is useful to have a breadth of expertise included in the EAB, the TQ EAB is actually quite large. We have therefore begun a process whereby the EAB will be comprised of a slightly smaller number of experts by the time that we end our tenure as editors. In order to accomplish this, we have only invited five new members to the EAB this year; we plan to invite a similar number of new members each year over the next two years of our editorship of the journal. Ahmar Mahboob and Brian Paltridge Editors REFERENCE Liu, J., & Berger, C. M. (2015). TESOL: A guide. London, England: Bloomsbury. IN THIS ISSUE 225