Arizona WORKING PAPERS NOW ONLINE!
To: SLATCOM@listserv.arizona.edu Dear SLAT: It is with great pleasure that I announce the launch of the Arizona Working Papers in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Online Publication: I have personally spent more than two months and untold hours developing this website. Nonetheless, this project would most certainly NEVER have been a success without the significant and generous assistance of many SLAT colleagues, faculty and friends. First and foremost, I would like to recognize Rong Liu, the SLAT Webmaster, for his vital assistance in acquiring the AWP .url as well as uploading and linking all of the pages, images and docs--a formidable and exhausting task, I assure you. Rong has dedicated a significant amount of his own time to this and it would not be what it is without his hard work. Thank you once again Rong! I would like to thank Dr. Andrew Carnie, 2007 AWP Advisor, for his counsel and feedback regarding the website format and navigation. His comments helped shape this project considerably and will undoubtedly contribute to its success as an online publication. Thank you Dr. Carnie! I would also like to recognize and thank Dr. Suzanne Panferov and Dr. Wendy Whitacre at the Center for ESL. They have provided material support and vital feedback that have greatly helped to shape this project and which will allow it continue in the form of scanning previous AWP volumes using CESL facilities. Thank you Suzanne & Wendy! Finally, I would like to thank my Co-Editor Robert Cote and the outgoing 2006 Senior Editor, Beth Specker. They have both provided me with valuable feedback and insights into the design and format of the website as a whole, as well as critical considerations of access and editorial consistency for future publications. Thanks Robert & Beth! The AWP website is fully functional, but it remains a work in progress. Several of the pages are intended for further development pending discussions with SLAT faculty, the SLAT Student Association, and any feedback we might receive from this initial launch. They are thus presented in truly minimalist form at the moment. Every article published within AWP Volumes 10, 12 & 13 can currently be downloaded as individual .pdf files from the [Electronic Volumes] page. Volume 11 should be forthcoming very shortly. Volumes 1-9 will be scanned in over the next few months. This is an exciting evolution for the Working Papers. For the first time, articles published in all previous and all future volumes will be searchable and accessible via the web. Past, present and future AWP authors will receive significantly more recognition and their work will be accessible to anyone and everyone. This new online publication will thus serve as both an archive and a showcase for SLAT scholarship as well as a platform for academic exchange and dialogue the world over. I hope that the SLAT community will find this to be the tremendous resource that it most certainly is, and one that will grow and develop well into the future. I truly feel fortunate to have been a part of this transition and to have had the opportunity to give back to the SLAT community in a tangible and meaningful way. And, I would encourage many of you to consider doing the same by submitting a paper for publication or applying to serve as a Co-Editor alongside Robert Cote next year. Having done both, I can certainly say that it is a rewarding and exceptional learning experience! Sincere Regards, Lance Askildson NOTES: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1). There are, as yet, some small formatting glitches when using the Firefox browser. These are entirely cosmetic and do not appear in IE. We will be working on these in the coming weeks. 2). The article pdf files have not yet been trolled by the google search engine. Thus, when you select the [search all volumes] option from the volumes.htm page, the internal google search will only locate keywords in the titles and not within the documents. We are looking into this. 3). The awp@email.arizona.edu email address is still being finalized by CCIT. It should be accessible within the next week to ten days. 4). If you notice any other bugs, glitches etc., please let me know! =) I welcome any and all feedback! ********************************************* Lance R. Askildson, Ph.D. Program in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching (SLAT) Coordinator for Teacher Training & Lecturer, Center for ESL (CESL), University of Arizona Lra03@email.arizona.edu *********************************************