The Year of the Horse and a Time of Change

It’s the Year of the Horse, and change is afoot at the journal. The Horse is characterized as having high energy, often depicted metaphorically as galloping purposefully forward. Perhaps this sense of vigor, movement, and change at AJELT befits this Horse year. What changes lie ahead?

After over ten years of involvement with AJELT as an editorial board member (2004–2006) to Reviews Editor (2007–2014), Professor Lixian Jin is leaving her work with the journal. Her moving on will enable Lixian to devote even greater time for her other professional pursuits and contributions, locally and internationally. She is always in demand, taking on key roles as a mentor, teacher, consultant, researcher/collaborator, and friend to so many across the globe. As she continues her many research projects and commitment to teachers and teaching/professional development, all of us at AJELT extend our sincere thanks for her support and editorial work.

I will be retiring from CUHK in August 2015. So, in anticipation of my departure from the university, I will also end my work as the founding and chief editor of AJELT at the end of 2014. Needless to say, it has been an honor to have been instrumental in AJELT’s inception and development. I am grateful to Professor Lyle Bachman, who gave me the mandate and resources to found this international publication, and to the English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) and the Department of English at CUHK for their sponsorship. I also wish to thank Professors George Braine, Nick Dimmitt, Peter Gu, Lixian Jin, and Ali Shehadeh—past and present editors; it has been a great privilege to have had such exceptional colleagues sharing editorial responsibilities during the formative years of the journal.

While change is never easy, it does give me pause—time to reflect. As I look back on AJELT, I am a proud witness of the journal’s progress from its early days (i.e., more than 20 years ago when it was called Occasional Papers and was an in-house publication) to its transition to an international refereed university press publication. The journal continues to undergo transformation, each year getting stronger and stronger due to the time, energy, expertise, and professionalism of applied linguists, representatives of our international community. AJELT is a member of the Council of the Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) and is indexed in Linguistics Abstracts, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, MLA International Bibliography, Sociological Abstracts, as well as The Asian Education Index. In addition, the journal collaborates with the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA): AILA members are provided AJELT subscriptions at reduced rates as part of their new or renewed membership. AJELT is also recognized as an important academic publication by the international organization, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and a description of the journal is noted on their homepage and in their print materials. AJELT can now be accessed online via EBSCO and Project MUSE. And AJELT will undergo more innovation and change as new editorial leadership charts the future for this publication.

At this time of transition, I wish to welcome new AJELT editors: Professor Gerald Nelson, Professor Derek H. L. Chan, and Professor Helen Zhao. All have been manuscript reviewers for AJELT, and I am honored to present them to you.

Professor Gerald Nelson will replace me as Co-Editor, joining Professor Ali Shehadeh in providing overall editorial leadership for the journal. Gerry is Professor in the English Department at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and formerly Reader in English Language and Literature at University College London. His main research interest is English grammar and grammar teaching, and he has written several grammar textbooks, including The Internet Grammar of English (University College London, 1998) and English: An Essential Grammar (Routledge, 2010). He also carries out corpus-based research on contemporary English worldwide and is the Coordinator of the International Corpus of English (ICE) research project. Professor Nelson can be contacted at <geraldanelson@gmail.com>.

Moving from their role as manuscript reviewers, Professor Derek H. L. Chan and Professor Helen Zhao take up the responsibility...