Preface to the 20th Anniversary Issue

Abstract

With our Spring 2021 volume, Studies in Applied Linguistics & TESOL (SALT) celebrates its twentieth anniversary. The journal was founded in 2001, originally called Working Papers in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. In the late 1990s, a young faculty member ZhaoHong Han joined the TESOL and Applied Linguistics Program at Teachers College. Inspired by a journal published by the University of Hawaii called Working Papers in ESL Studies -- one that evolved over time into a very influential outlet, Dr. Han wanted to create synergy among doctoral students across the three tracks of SLA, assessment and language use, offering them authentic editorial experience as well as a platform to publish their work-in-progress. The web journal was subsequently founded to be a place of incubation, a venue where students and scholars could experiment with ongoing ideas for their research and receive feedback from multiple perspectives. The journal grew to garner an international reputation over the years and changed its name to SALT in 2019.