National Achievement Award, Canadian Linguistic Association Prix national d'excellence, Association canadienne de linguistique 2021

Dr. John Archibald

Dr. John Archibald has demonstrated leadership in linguistics in Canada and has made substantial and distinguished contributions to language research over a significant period. He has exhibited innovation, and has impacted practice, policy, and the broader community; he has also been effective in communication and popularization beyond academia. In short, he is an extraordinary academic leader, educator and scholar who has made great contributions to the field within Canada and around the world.

Dr. Archibald earned his Ph.D. in 1991 at the Modern Language Centre in O.I.S.E, after completing his BA and MA, also at the University of Toronto. He is currently Professor at the University of Victoria, where he has served as Dean of Humanities. Prior to this position, he was Department Head and Associate Dean at the University of Calgary. He is also an affiliate researcher at the Bilingualism Research Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He served as President of the Canadian Linguistic Association from 2002 to 2005, and in 2020 he was inducted as a Fellow into the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Archibald's research focusses on second language phonology, with five books and many published articles and presentations in this area. His groundbreaking 1993 monograph Language Learnability and L2 Phonology was the first to adapt models of language learnability to the question of how second-language learners acquire phonological knowledge, taking seriously the notion of L2 phonology as cognition. His approach laid the groundwork for much future research on interlanguage grammars and the architecture of the bilingual mind, and is regularly covered in textbooks in the field. In his current work, he is probing recursion and representational realism through research on second language acquisition at the interfaces of morphology and syntax. In addition to his own research, Dr. Archibald has served the field as a reviewer, adjudicator, and editor.

Dr. Archibald is also an extremely effective bridge-builder, bringing together the worlds of theoretical linguistics and L2 pedagogy. He has influenced thousands through his work on the benefits of second language education and bilingualism, including the production of the video Advantage for Life: Learning Another Language, which was placed in every school in Alberta. He also co-developed a certificate program in Alberta for heritage language teachers, as well as co-producing several technical reports for the government on aspects of second language learning such as instructional time, special populations, and indigenous populations. His work has thus shaped educational policy in the province of Alberta.

Archibald has also excelled as an advisor and mentor, fostering new generations of L2 phonology scholars. Since 2000, he has been a co-editor of the widely used textbook, Contemporary Linguistic Analysis, now in its 9th edition, which showcases Canadian linguistics and brings new students into the field. Notably, Dr. Archibald has taught introductory linguistics almost every year (even while Dean) for almost 30 years, earning exemplary student evaluations.

To sum up, John Archibald has made defining contributions to linguistics in a multifaceted manner, advancing the science of second language phonology and the scholarship of teaching. He has been a leader in knowledge mobilization to both community members and policy makers. The Canadian Linguistic Association is delighted to recognize this great service by awarding Dr. Archibald the National Achievement Award for 2021.

Professeur John Archibald

Le professeur John Archibald a fait preuve de leadership en linguistique au Canada et a apporté, au cours d'une longue période, des contributions considérables et précieuses au domaine de la recherche. Il a aussi fait preuve d'innovation et a influencé la pratique, la politique, et la communauté en général. Il a été un très efficace communicateur et vulgarisateur bien au-delà du milieu académique. En bref, il est un chef de file universitaire, un enseignant exceptionnel et un savant qui a contribué généreusement au domaine de la linguistique au Canada et dans le monde.

Le professeur Archibald a obtenu son doctorat en 1991 au Centre de langues modernes de l...