First Book Award

The American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) First Book Award recognizes a scholar whose first book represents outstanding work in the field of applied linguistics. In bestowing this award, the association honors books that make an exceptional contribution to the field as a whole or to a specific area of specialization. The First Book Award will be given biennially, alternating every other year with the AAAL Book Award. 

Eligibility

Books published in the two years prior to the call for submissions are eligible for consideration. The must also be a scholar’s first published book. For the present award cycle, books must have copyright dates of 2023 or 2024. The First Book Award is given in two categories: (1) monograph and (2) edited book.

Submission of first edition monographs bearing an ISBN welcome from any publisher or organization worldwide. While second edition books are not eligible, volumes previously published in another language and translated into English may be submitted. A book based on a dissertation may not be submitted for the book award if the dissertation has also been submitted for the AAAL dissertation award in past or present award cycles. Similarly, books previously submitted for the general Book Award may not also be submitted for the First Book award and vice versa.*

The author(s) or editor(s) of a submitted book are not required to be members of AAAL in order to be considered. 

Submission Procedure

Submission should be made by the publishing organization. Complete the online submission form below, including the name, address, e-mail, and phone number of the publisher’s point of contact as well as the name, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address of the author(s) or editor(s).

A publishing organization may submit up to two different titles for award consideration in each category (i.e., up to two monographs and up to two edited books and no more than four in total). A processing fee of $100 USD will be invoiced for each title submitted for consideration. The book awards do not include a monetary prize for recipients. Failure to pay the fee will result in the nomination being pulled from consideration. This is an administrative fee only; the fee will be waived for non-profit organizations that may submit verification of their status in lieu of the processing fee. 

To be considered for the award, publishers must submit twelve copies of each book, along with the award submission form and processing fee, to:

AAAL Business Office
2900 Delk Road
Suite 700, PMB 321
Marietta, GA 30067
United States

Please note that e-books should be submitted in addition to hard copies in order to be considered for the award. Hard copy books will not be returned.

Nominations for the 2025 Award are now open. 

Awarding Process

Submissions will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary committee of applied linguists who will evaluate the production qualities (e.g., title, layout, copyediting, and indexing) and scholarly contributions (e.g., theoretical/methodological rigor, organization, clarity of writing, and potential impact on applied linguistics), with greater weight given to scholarly contributions.

The publishers of books that are selected as the finalists and the award recipient will be notified in January 2024. These publishers will also receive comments from the review committee which may be used for promotional purposes. The award will be presented at the 2025 AAAL annual conference.

*Note: The present award cycle includes only the AAAL First Book Award. The next call for the AAAL First Book Award will be announced in 2024. While an author’s first book may be submitted for either the general AAAL Book Award or the First Book Award, but not both, the latter award specifically recognizes a scholar’s first book. In the case of more than one author, the nominated text should be each author's first book.

For questions about the Book Award, email BookAward@AAAL.org.

Recipients

2023

   "(M)othering Labeled Children: Bilingualism and Disability in the Lives of Latinx Mothers"
   Authored by: María Cioè-Peña, University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education
   Published by: Multilingual Matters

Finalist

"Chronotopes and Migration: Language, Social Imagination, and Behavior"
Authored by: Farzad Karimzad, Salisbury University and Lydia Catedral, City University of Hong Kong
Published by: Taylor & Francis Group

2021

      "Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad"
     Authored by: Jonathan Rosa, Stanford University
     Published by: Oxford University Press

Finalists

"Talking Like Children: Language and the Production of Age in the Marshall Islands"
Author: Elise Berman, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Publisher: Oxford University Press

"Eye Tracking in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism: A Research Synthesis and Methodological Guide"
Author: Aline Godfroid, Michigan State University
Publisher: Routledge

"Teaching and Researching ELLs’ Disciplinary Literacies: Systemic Functional Linguistics in Action in the Context of U.S. School Reform"
Author: Meg Gebhard, UMASS, Amherst
Publisher: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group

2019

     "Racialized Identities in Second Language Learning: Speaking Blackness in Brazil"

     Author: Uju Anya, Penn State University

     Publisher: Routledge/Taylor and Francis

Finalists

"Restrictive language policy in practice: English learners in Arizona" 
Author: Amy J. Heineke
Publisher: Multilingual Matters

"Second-language discourse in the digital world"
Author: Ilona Vandergriff
Publisher: John Benjamins

2017

     "Sociocultural Theory and L2 Instructional Pragmatics"
     Author: Rémi Van Compernolle
     Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Finalist

"Social Interaction and L2 Classroom Discourse"
Author: Olcay Sert
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press