Issues and Prospects: Introduction to the 50th Jubilee Special Issue

This special issue of Language Learning departs from the journal's usual format to celebrate its achieving a full half‐century of publication. This occasion is appropriately heralded and documented in J.C. Catford's “Historical Sketch,” which immediately follows this Introduction, as well as in Alexander Guiora's “Epilogue,” which closes the volume. The remaining articles similarly are written versions of presentations made at the Language Learning 50th Jubilee Symposium at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, September 18 and 19, 1998, organized by Alexander Guiora, Patricia Aldridge, Ian Catford, Joan Morley, Ana Ostermann, and Carol Aldrich. The Language Learning Board of Directors invited five distinguished scholars to “present their respective assessments of the present state of our field and their views on the most pressing, major issues in need of resolution or further inquiry” (p. vi, Language Learning 48:1): Ellen Bialystok, Wolfgang Klein, Jacquelyn Schachter, Mary McGroarty, and the incoming editor of the journal, Nick Ellis. Five former editors of Language Learning —each distinguished applied linguists themselves—were correspondingly invited to respond to one of these speakers' statements and to reflect on their experiences as editors of the journal: H. Douglas Brown, Diane Larsen‐Freeman, Ronald Wardaugh, William Acton, and John A. Upshur. The resulting collection is a truly monumental issue of the journal, rich in history, ideas, and perspectives.