Feature Articles
December 2025 AAALetter
Table of Contents
- The Importance of AAAL’s Community and Collective Voice | Linda Harklau
- Call for Proposals: Duolingo English Test Competitive Research Grants | Sophie Wodzak
The Importance of AAAL’s Community and Collective Voice
Linda Harklau, University of Georgia
Receiving the 2025 Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award was deeply meaningful to me since AAAL has been my professional home for over 30 years. Looking back over that time, I can see tremendous growth in the field and in our association. We went from a membership of less than 1,000 in the early 1990s to the present membership of close to 2,200. In that time, AAAL has become the primary place for applied linguists from North America and around the world to bring new research ideas and areas, and to establish professional networks.
What might not be so evident to you as a AAAL member is that the growth of AAAL is in large part attributable to the behind-the-scenes volunteer efforts of hundreds of scholars who have donated their time and energy to make our association a diverse, dynamic, and welcoming academic community.
Your membership and participation in AAAL are especially important at present, when applied linguistics as a field and profession is facing unprecedented challenges. Language scholars are under increasing pressure to show the relevance of our work at a time when support for the humanities and social sciences at U.S. universities has been waning and language programs are being cut. We also live in a new age of nationalism in the U.S. in which immigration, international exchange, and linguistic diversity and language rights are coming under attack. Additionally, new technologies and funders are upending longstanding traditions for peer review and changing the nature of academic publishing and knowledge distribution.
As these challenges buffet our field, AAAL is more important than ever. It provides a community where language learning, teaching, and scholarship are valued and prioritized. Through its activities, AAAL reaffirms the importance of scholarly expertise in constructing new knowledge in high quality and ethical ways. It helps to sustain international connections and perspectives. It also provides a forum to collectively advocate for the importance of language and linguistics scholarship—for example, through our association’s membership in the Joint National Council on Languages and National Council for Languages and International Studies. Finally, AAAL encourages and supports new scholars as they enter our field through the Fund for the Future of Applied Linguistics and Graduate Student Council.
All this is to say, the continuing health and dynamism of AAAL and our field in a very real way depend on you to get involved. Please consider serving as a volunteer in the organization. It is not only a professional obligation to pay it forward, but also—as I can attest—personally rewarding to contribute to the AAAL community and assure its vitality and relevance for the future.
Call for Proposals: Duolingo English Test Competitive Research Grants
Sophie Wodzak, Duolingo
Senior Communications Manager, Duolingo English Test
Duolingo is now accepting proposals for its 2025–2026 Competitive Research Grants. Up to three awards of up to $120,000 USD each will be granted for studies that advance the science of language assessment in areas such as:
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Validity, reliability, and efficacy
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Fairness, justice, and test-taker experience (TTX)
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Innovative task types
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Artificial intelligence, and responsible AI practices
🗓️ Proposal deadline: January 16, 2026
📢 Notifications: End of February 2026
🔗 https://englishtest.duolingo.com/research/grants