Volume 10 (2019) Issue 2, pp. 127-128
Editorial
In this Editorial, I would like to highlight a very special moment in the history of JLLT, namely its first ten years of existence.
When it was decided to launch a journal of linguistics and language teaching, this project appeared to be a challenging one because back then, nobody knew whether there would be a market for a journal that covered the full range from (theoretical) linguistics with all its different levels and sub-fields via foreign language methodology to (practical) language teaching. Now, ten years later, this decision has proven to be right - not only because linguistics and language teaching, logically, are clearly complementary to each other, but also because the close relationship and the interdependencies between these two ends of the continuum come to fruition in a considerable number of articles in which they enrich each other. Another factor which proves this choice to be right is the worldwide scale on which JLLT acts and on which it now has its well-defined place.
JLLT has reached far beyond Germany and even Europe. This scope has permitted the Journal to cover scientific approaches of a varied character, to look into various ways of teaching foreign languages and even to analyse the current situation of some minority languages. JLLT’s approach to publish empirical articles, review articles and also literature-based ones also speaks up for its versatility and its potential to reach readers.
The Journal, launched in January 2010 as a biennial one, has come in twenty volumes altogether, with 115 articles and 32 book reviews having been published, which amounts to around 3100 pages full of scientific findings.
In JLLT, of all the articles published, articles on foreign language methodology are most highly represented. This means that there is a high scientific demand for looking into the mechanisms and regularities of teaching and learning foreign languages and a strong desire to make this complex process a bit more accessible, speed it up and lead learners to an even better language mastery. This also shows that the field of languages is (perhaps more than ever) a highly attractive one - possibly because the learning and acquisition of (foreign) languages is a field which has been of utmost importance in all the history of mankind.
It is not surprising, then, that authors from the whole world have come across JLLT. The geographic distribution of articles that were accepted for publication - altogether, 121 authors have published articles in JLLT - covers all the five continents and a considerable number of countries.
The quantitative impact that JLLT has obtained (71,927 pageviews altogether; 22-12-2019) is worth mentioning as well. JLLT has reached readers in large parts or the northern hemisphere as well as in China and Brazil (cf. the screenshot below). Publishing in JLLT, then, implies high reachability of researchers and language instructors in a huge number of countries:
JLLT Pageviews (22-12-2019)
This development has been made possible by all the authors who trust the quality of JLLT and turn to the Journal for the publication of their findings. I would like to take this chance to extend my appreciation to all the authors for their contributions and, above all, for their confidence in JLLT.
As the editor, I would also like to take this occasion to give my special thanks to the members of the Editorial Advisory Board for their commitment. Without you, who work on a voluntary basis in addition to all the other tasks you have in the framework of your own teaching and research, the success of JLLT would not have been possible.
We are now heading for JLLT’ second decade, hoping that we can keep up - and even extend - its academic and geographic impact and that the topics covered in the articles to come will be as interesting and scientifically fruitful as has been the case so far. We will begin this second decade by celebrating JLLT’s first ten years. As the suspense is to be kept alive, no further mention of the type of celebration can be made here...
I myself am looking forward to the continuation of my work for JLLT, to the collaboration with the Editorial Advisory Board and to that with researchers and authors. Let’s go for it together!
Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor