About AAAL

Founded in 1977, the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) is a professional organization of scholars who are interested in and actively contribute to the multi-disciplinary field of applied linguistics. AAAL members promote principled approaches to language-related concerns, including language education, acquisition and loss, bilingualism, discourse analysis, literacy, rhetoric and stylistics, language for special purposes, psycholinguistics, second and foreign language pedagogy, language assessment, and language policy and planning.

Organizationally, AAAL is the United States affiliate of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée, AILA).

The Beginning of AAAL:
Memories of the first conference and the start of the organization

Susan Gass, Elaine Tarone, Andrew Cohen, and Bill Grabe offer their memories of how AAAL went from being a small part of LSA (Linguistic Society of America) to being the incredible organization it is today.

Primary Activities

Promotes research and organizes annual scholarly conferences
Recognizes scholarship in and service to the field of applied linguistics of individuals at various stages of their careers through its awards program
Established and maintains the Fund for the Future of Applied Linguistics, an endowment fund to support graduate student participation at the AAAL Annual Conference
Publishes the AAALetter
Distributes to members the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL). The ARAL is published by Cambridge University Press and is an Official Journal of the American Association for Applied Linguistics
Distributes to members the annual AILA Review, a monograph focused on a timely topic in the field
Negotiates discounts for members on a variety of professional journals and books
Maintains a list of academic job openings in applied linguistics
Facilitates distribution and exchange of information
Advocates on policy issues pertaining to language
Networks with Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), the Language Testing Research Colloquium (LTRC) of the International Language Testing Association (ILTA), and other related professional organizations
Participates in the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) as its U.S. affiliate