Award-winning Articles and Monographs

See the list of Language Learning Outstanding Article of the Year winners

The Language Learning Board of Directors and Editors congratulate the following authors of the journal for their award-winning articles and monographs.

2020s

• The 2021 ACTFL-NFMLTA/MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in World Language Education went to Background characteristics and oral proficiency development over time in lower-division college foreign language programs, authored by X. Zhang, P. Winke, and S. Clark. View the award announcement and acceptance by the authors here.

2010s

• Marisela Bonilla López, Elke Van Steendam, Dirk Speelman and Kris Buyse received the 2019 ACTFL-NFMLTA/MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Foreign Language Education. The award recognises their article entitled “The Differential Effects of Comprehensive Feedback Forms in the Second Language Writing Class”
  
  
• Language Learning article entitled "From early starters to late finishers? A longitudinal study of early foreign language learning in school" co-authored by Nils Jaekel, Michael Schurig, Merle Florian, and Markus Ritter has been awarded the 2018 Research Article Award from the American Association for Applied Linguistics. 
• Luke Plonsky of Northern Arizona University and Susa M. Gass of Michigan State University received the 2012 ACTFL-MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Foreign Language Education. The award recognizes their article entitled, “Quantitative Research Methods, Study Quality, and Outcomes: The Case of Interaction.”
• Catherine Van Beuningen from the University of Amsterdam received the 2011 Christopher Brumfit Thesis Award. The main study of this doctoral dissertation, which explored the value of written error correction for fostering long-term grammatical accuracy, is reported in: Van Beuningen, C. G., De Jong, N. H., & Kuiken, F. (2012). Evidence on the effectiveness of comprehensive error correction in second language writing. Language Learning, 62, 1-41. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00674.x. Read the announcement of the award here.

2006-2009

• The 2009 Sage/International Language Testing Association (ILTA) award for the best book in the area of language testing/assessment is awarded to Tim McNamara and Carsten Roever for the Language Learning Monograph: Language Testing: The Social Dimension.
• The 2007 ACTFL-MLJ Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Foreign Language Education has been awarded to Paul Toth for his article “Processing Instruction and a Role for Output in Second Language Acquisition,” published in the 2006 volume of Language Learning. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language’s Paul Pimsleur Award for Research in Foreign Language Education is awarded on the basis of the quality of the research presented in the article and its potential impact on foreign language learning or teaching.

2000-2005

• The Language Learning Monograph, The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective, by Paul Seedhouse, won the Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize from the Modern Language Association for the outstanding scholarly book of the year in the fields of language, culture, literacy or literature with strong application to the teaching of languages other than English.
• Kimberly Noels' article 'Learning Spanish as a Second Language: Learners' Orientations and Perceptions of Their Teachers' Communication Style', Language Learning 51, 107-144, was recognized by an award from the International Association for Language and Social Psychology: The Robert C. Gardner Award for Excellence in Second Language and Second Language Learning Research.
• John Norris and Lourdes Ortega were awarded the TESOL/Newbury House Award for Outstanding Research in the year 2000 for their article 'Effectiveness of L2 Instruction: A Research Synthesis and Quantitative Meta Analysis,' Language Learning 50, 417-528. The same article earned Dr. Norris and Dr. Ortega the 2001 ACTFL-MLJ Pimsleur Award for the best research article on foreign language education.
• Rob Schoonen, Jan Hulstijn and Bart Bossers were awarded the 2000 ACTFL-MLJ Pimsleur Award for their article: 'Metacognitive and Language-Specific Knowledge in Native and Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: An Empirical Study Among Dutch Students in Grades 6, 8 and 10,' Language Learning 48, 71-106.

1990s

• J. Purpura was selected by the International Language Testing Association for its award for the best article on language testing in 1997 for his paper 'An analysis of the Relationships Between Test Takers' Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategy Use and Second Language Test Performance' Language Learning, 47, 289-325.