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The 2024 Albert Valdman Award

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2025

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Announcement
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2025 , pp. 2
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Albert Valdman Award for Outstanding Publication in 2024 is:

“Replication studies in second language acquisition research: Definitions, issues, resources, and future directions” by Kevin McManus

Please join us in congratulating Kevin on this contribution to the journal and to the field of second language acquisition.

A note from this year’s winner:

I am extremely grateful to Studies in Second Language Acquisition’s board of reviewers for selecting this article for the 2024 Albert Valdman Award for Outstanding Publication. I wrote this article as part of the 2024 special issue Replication Studies in Second Language Acquisition Research. As readers know, this special issue represents a long overdue milestone for both the journal and field because it is the first to bring together a series of replication studies about second language acquisition (SLA). In doing so, this collection showcases exemplary standards in replication study design and reporting to strengthen and benefit the field for years to come. The special issue also serves as an excellent pedagogical resource for teaching and learning about the place and importance of replication studies in the field. My introduction counters pervasive myths that continue to harm and weaken the discipline (i.e., false claims that replications lack originality and innovation), while also laying the groundwork for new developments that are key to the conduct of high-quality replication studies (e.g., questions about study selection, variable modification, and the replicability of effects). Of course, this work would not have been possible without the solid contributions of the authors whose work is published in the special issue. Their contributions are immense, and it has been an honour for me to work with them in bringing this work to publication. At the same time, discussions of replication in SLA are not new. I want to acknowledge the significant contributions of many others who have been at forefront of these discussions over the years, especially Graeme Porte. Graeme’s pioneering work has drawn attention to the need for replication studies in the field and his journal has been at the forefront of disseminating high-quality replications for years. If all journals took replication studies as seriously as Language Teaching and SSLA, then the discipline would be in a much better state.