Preface

We resolved to start publishing this journal thinking that despite the fact 
that Poland has a strong position in second language acquisition research and 
that quite a large number of monographic publications in this area come out 
every year—often published abroad with Multilingual Matters or Springer, 
among others—there is yet no academic research-oriented journal devoted to 
the theory and practice of SLA which would be widely available to Polish 
academia. The existing journal, Studies in Second Language Learning and 
Teaching published by Adam Mickiewicz University (Kalisz–Poznań), em-
phasizes the role of classroom-oriented research and so its particular focus 
complements the new journal by presenting foreign language pedagogy and 
its classroom applications. The origins of our journal also lie in the success 
of the International Conference on Second/Foreign Language Acquisition 
which has been organized for almost thirty years by the Institute of English 
at the University of Silesia. It gathers together each year many Polish and 
foreign academics and focuses on often un-researched issues and fairly new 
trends in SLA. Papers falling within the leading theme of each conference 
are usually edited and published in the form of a monograph, but there are 
also many studies presented in research areas not directly related to the main 
theme. Since many of these are of a high academic standard, we would like 
to open a channel for their publication, alongside other original articles and 
submissions. We believe that our new journal will serve an important need 
in projecting new and interesting research in SLA.

This journal will be published bi-annually and will consist of articles 
submitted to us directly or solicited (by invitation). Each text will be peer-
reviewed in a double blind referring process by referees of the Editorial 
Board and beyond. The Editorial Board consists of both Polish scholars 
and foreign experts in the area, and represents the wide range of research 
interests of its members. All updated information on the journal will be 



6 Preface

made available on the Institute of English (University of Silesia) webpage 
at www.ija.us.edu.pl (via a special link) and the journal webpage at http://
www.journal.us.edu.pl/index.php/TAPSLA.

The present inaugural issue consists of articles in various areas of SLA and 
also research in multilingualism. The thematic spread of this issue ranges from 
the texts relating purely to linguistic aspects of second language acquisition/
learning in different contexts and at different levels to issues of the identity of 
those involved in the process of foreign language learning, teachers and learners. 
In future we also intend to compile special issues which will be thematically-
oriented.

We hope that this journal will to some extent fill a gap in the Polish jour-
nal publishing market and that it will be of interest to researchers working in 
the field of second language acquisition. We would like to invite Polish and 
foreign academics to share their scholarly research with us by submitting their 
work to the Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition journal pub-
lished by the prestigious Polish academic publisher, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu 
Śląskiego (University of Silesia Press).

Danuta Gabryś-Barker
Adam Wojtaszek