AsiaTEFL Book Series

AsiaTEFL Book Series is an initiative of the AsiaTEFL, the largest professional organisation in English language education in Asia currently led by Professor Joo-Kyung Park (Honam University, South Korea) and Professor Suwarsih Madya (Universitas Sarjanawiyata Taman Siswa, Indonesia).

Over the span of 16 years (from 2007 to 2022), the AsiaTEFL Book Series published 10 academic volumes in collaboration with prominent publishers including Routledge.

During that period, the outstanding Professor Bernard Spolsky was Editor in-Chief of the Book Series.

Professor Spolsky was an international authority in language policy. He was President of TESOL, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Mellon Fellow, and a Senior Research Fellow at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington, USA. Professor Spolsky was also the editor-in-chief of Applied Linguistics (1979-1986) and the first sole editor-in-chief of Language Policy (2002-2007). Throughout his career, Professor Spolsky wrote and edited two dozen books and more than 250 articles and chapters

With the passing of Professor Spolsky in 2022, joint Presidents of Asia TEFL appointed Dr Subhan Zein as the new Editor-in-Chief.

In consultation with Presidents of Asia TEFL and other Board members of the organisation, Dr Zein has developed new initiatives for the AsiaTEFL Book Series. The Series now allows scholars to publish their original, cutting edge research, whether they are in the form of research monographs or edited volumes. The Series also gives equal opportunity to anyone wanting to edit academic volumes to publish in the Series, rather than merely including the Editor-in-Chief as one of the Book Editors. Third, the Series’ Editorial Board is now home to some of the finest internationally celebrated scholars with expertise in the English language and English language education in Asia. These include Professor Anthony J. Liddicoat (Warwick University, UK), Professor Yuko Goto Butler (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Professor Xuesong (Andy) Gao (University of New South Wales, Australia), and Professor Ee Ling Low (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).

Aim

The AsiaTEFL Book Series aims to become a rigorous academic publication outlet for scholars wanting to publish edited volumes and research monographs focusing on the English language and English language education in Asia.

Scope

The Series publishes edited volumes and research monographs which focus on innovative studies into the English language and English language education in Asia. The specific geographical focus includes any country in Asia or any region in Asia.

Contributors may critically examine the role of English in the formal education system or its use as a medium of instruction in a given country or region in Asia. However, rather than solely focusing on English, contributors are encouraged to take a broad sociolinguistic approach by examining the interrelationship between English and other languages in the country’s/region’s linguistic ecology. Examination of English in the education system or its use as a medium of instruction and its complex and dynamic relation with a national language and indigenous languages is of great interest, as are comparative studies involving two or more countries.

The Series also opens up opportunities to scholars wanting to examine Asian Englishes and English as a lingua franca. Explorations of the way English spreads in an Asian country or region, its use and development, as well as the status and corpus analysis of local varieties of English are welcome. So are investigations of English in a diverse range of settings; for example, in lingua franca situations involving English. Contributors seeking to explore either of these niches of research must ensure an adequate portion is dedicated to pedagogical implications. 

The Series offers space for in-depth Asian-based research into the English language and English language education in Asia. The research may focus on any of the following topics:

  • language revitalisation
  • linguistic corpora

  • discourse analysis

  • materials development

  • language teaching methodology

  • intercultural language teaching

  • teacher identity

  • language teacher education

  • linguistic landscape

  • language ideologies

  • second language acquisition (SLA)

  • pragmatics

  • language testing and assessment

  • language and the media

  • Asian Englishes

  • language planning and policy

  • language and technology

  • translanguaging

  • English as a lingua franca

  • linguistic human rights

For example, one may wish to write a monograph about the identify of English teachers in Afghanistan, and another may want to edit an academic volume on the impact of the spread of English on Kazakhstan’s linguistic landscape.

Editorial Board Members

The AsiaTEFL Book Series is honoured to have secured the commitment of internationally recognised scholars with relevant expertise in Applied Linguistics/TESOL to join its Editorial Board. While some of these scholars are based in Anglophone countries, others are based in Asia. The country of residence notwithstanding, they all work at some of the most prestigious universities in the world, including University of Pennsylvania, The University of Hong Kong, The University of Sydney, and Nanyang Technological University.

All Editorial Board Members have conducted research based in an Asian nation or a region in Asia. All also have strong familiarity with English in Asia as well as English language education in some countries in Asia or even the whole Asian continent. All the Editorial Board members have a wide range of research skills and expertise which would ensure coverage and quality of review for all submitted proposals and manuscripts. Their expertise ranges from discourse analysis, to other fields such as language policy, language testing, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), language teaching methodology, English as a lingua franca and World Englishes, intercultural language teaching, materials development, among others.

The full list of the current Editorial Board Members of the AsiaTEFL Book Series is below:

Submission

The AsiaTEFL Book Series invites authors to contact the Editor-in-Chief with proposals for new monographs or edited volumes. Authors who wish to write a research monograph, those wishing to turn their doctorate thesis into a monograph, and those putting together previous studies into a cohesive book, are welcome to submit their proposals. Scholar(s) planning to edit a volume are encouraged to assemble a group of contributors and discuss their plans with the Editor-in-Chief (book@asiatefl.org).

Peer Review

All book proposals and manuscripts submitted to the AsiaTEFL Book Series will undergo at least triple blind reviews.

Dr Subhan Zein will facilitate the review process. He will assign two Editorial Board Members to review each book proposal or manuscript. Up to two external reviewers will also be assigned to review the proposal or manuscript. The process will result in the involvement of maximum 4 or minimum 3 reviewers for each book proposal or manuscript. All published monographs and edited volumes will be Scopus-indexed.

For more information, please contact: book@asiatefl.org