working on various topics and have had various momentums, as Lourdes
Ortega remarked in her definition of what constitutes a leader. In the list
there are also applied linguists who had an impact historically, but have
passed away, like Ferguson, Hymes, Wallace Lambert, Trim and Pit Corder,
or now no longer play a role, like Kellerman and Richard Lambert. In that
sense, the list is not a reflection of who are the leaders at present, rather it
indicates the leaders over the last 30 years, as listed by the informants.
As mentioned before, detailed information about age is not available, but
the average age seems to be in the 55–65 range. Many younger researchers
are taking over the role of the older generation and will be the leaders of the
next generation. This includes people like Lourdes Ortega, Aneta Pavlenko,
Jean-Marc Dewaele and Marianne Gullberg.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the majority of the leaders in the
list are men. In addition, men tend to list more men than women as leaders,
and women do the same.
4.3 Portraits of the main leaders
In this section short portraits of the main leaders (mentioned ten times or
more) are presented in order of number of listings based on the comments
by the informants. Their main lines of research are presented, followed by
comments from the informants and a listing of their two most frequently
cited publications.
Claire Kramsch
Claire Kramsch’s work focuses on the relation between language and lan-
guage teaching in context. She emphasizes the role of culture and literature
and thereby connects ideas from various scholars from various countries,
including Germany and France.
“She has been a huge presence over the last 20 years, pushing our thinking
in new directions, urging us to understand.”“She knows about AL outside
the Anglo world, presenting important ideas about multilingualism.”“She is
tireless, passionate and engaged.”“She started looking at ecological aspects
of AL long before anyone else.”
She is currently president of AILA and a former president of AAAL.
Kramsch, C. (1993)Context and Culture in Language Teaching, Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Kramsch, C. (1998)Language and Culture, Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Merrill Swain
Merrill Swain’s work ranges from evaluation of immersion education to
language and aging and sociocultural aspects of language learning and
40 The leaders