Submission Guidelines
General Guidelines for Contributors
Articles | Research Syntheses | Forum on Technology in Practice | Reviews | Submission Process |Review Process | IRIS
Articles
- LLT publishes articles of up to 8,500 words that present an empirical study or an original framework (e.g., novel conceptual or theoretical ideas) linking second language acquisition theory, previous research, and language learning and teaching practices that utilize technology. Prioritized are articles that provide and discuss data and analysis of language learning or language teaching outcomes. Articles containing only descriptions of software, pedagogical procedures, or those presenting results of small or limited surveys without providing systematic empirical data and analysis on language learning or language teaching outcomes or processes will not be considered.
- General guidelines are available for conducting CALL research (see LLT editors’ Research Workshop slides) and for reporting on both quantitative and qualitative research (see LLT Research Guidelines).
- Manuscripts that have already been published, are being considered for publication elsewhere, or have been previously rejected by LLT will not be considered. Authors who submit a manuscript simultaneously to multiple journals will be banned from submissions to LLT for a two-year period. If your submission is part of a larger study or if you have used the same data in whole or in part in other papers published or under review, you must write a cover letter stating where the paper is published/under review and describing how the current submission to LLT makes a different and distinct contribution to the field.
- Submitted manuscripts that contain substantial portions of the author(s)' own work that has been published in other venues are considered self plagiarism and will not be considered. Authors will be banned from submissions to LLT for a two-year period.
- Submitted manuscripts that contain substantial portions of others' work that have been published are considered plagiarism, and authors who submit plagiarized work will be banned from publishing in LLT.
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Authors who use AI tools in the writing of their manuscript, production of images or graphical elements of the paper, or in the collection and analysis of data, must be transparent in disclosing in the Materials and Methods (or similar section) of the paper how the AI tool was used and which tool was used. Authors are fully responsible for the content of their manuscript, even those parts produced by an AI tool, and are thus liable for any breach of publication ethics.
Research Syntheses
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LLT publishes research syntheses of up to 8,500 words (same as regular research papers) but excluding references and appendices. Research syntheses provide a critical overview of empirical research in a given subfield of CALL. The syntheses must be comprehensive but focused by capturing ground-breaking studies that have defined the particular subfield. Syntheses must also show the impact of CALL research and its applications to language learning and teaching. Click here to see the Call for Papers for these types of articles (they were previously referred to as "systematic reviews and meta-analyses").
Forum on Technology in Practice
The integration of technology into language teaching and learning has become the norm in recent years. It is therefore more important than ever for practitioners and researchers to share those pedagogical practices that work well and those that do not, identify practical challenges in technology integration and evaluate its impact. The Technology in Practice (TIP) Forum aims to provide a space for language teachers and teacher educators to reflect on their pedagogies, with a focus on the intersection of education and computer-assisted language learning (CALL).
In particular, the TIP Forum publishes pedagogically oriented articles that describe the implementation of a CALL-based technology, task, activity, or assessment for a specific purpose related to language teaching or teacher education. Submissions are welcomed from those who work in a diversity of contexts (e.g., K-12, higher education, or professional contexts).
The audience for the TIP Forum includes graduate students, practitioners, and teacher educators. Notably, the Forum places pedagogy at the forefront, meaning that contributions are intended to provide practical descriptions and insights. To facilitate this, submissions are encouraged to follow the guidelines below. The TIP forum accepts manuscripts on a rolling basis, similar to traditional manuscript submissions.
Guidelines for Authors (submitting to Technology in Practice):
- Word length: Initial submissions should not exceed 5,000 words (including references, but not including any appendices).
- Citations: Authors are encouraged not to exceed 15 references.
- Sections of the manuscript: Submissions typically contain the following five sections: 1. Introduction, 2. Instructional Context, 3. Description of Teaching Practices, 4. Practical Benefits and Challenges, and 5. Lessons Learned.
- Introduction - Open by explaining the aims of the pedagogical practice. For example, is it a tool/activity/assessment that you are highlighting in this Forum article? Why are you highlighting it (i.e., for what purpose)? If any existing or related research exists, be sure to briefly justify its use.
- Instructional Context - Explain information about your teaching context, such as the location, the age of the learners, their proficiency level, and information regarding student and/or instructor access to technology, etc. What problem did the introduction of the technology aim to tackle, or what new opportunity was it used to achieve?
- Description of Teaching Practices - Explain in detail how you instituted the tool/activity/assessment in your context. Include any tables or figures that may help readers better understand what you did and how you did it.
- Practical Benefits and Challenges - Reflect on some of the benefits you observed while adopting the tool/activity/assessment (e.g., aspects of student engagement, learning, etc.). Additionally, report some of the issues you encountered and how you dealt with them. These can be challenges you faced as a teacher and/or challenges students faced when engaging with the tool/activity/assessment. Your discussion of the benefits and challenges may stem from your observations as a teacher, or they may come from informal discussions with students. (Note: In this section, you should not integrate any formal data sources or statistical analyses which commonly appear in empirical research papers).
- Lessons Learned - Close the piece by providing readers with a few practical tips or takeaways to consider when implementing the tool/activity/assessment in the future.
- Language use/proofreading: Prior to submission, authors should ensure that a) they have carefully proofread their work, or b) their work has been proofread by a professional familiar with academic English.
Prior to drafting a manuscript, prospective authors are strongly encouraged to review articles that have been published in the TIP Forum, as they can serve as useful templates and mentor texts. Examples include:
Gracia, E. (2025). Teaching ESL pronunciation to international teaching assistants with the ELSA Speak app. Language Learning & Technology, 29(1), 1-13. https://www.lltjournal.org/item/1223/
Hu, H., Du, K., Hashim, H. U., & Hashim, H. (2025). Educational escape rooms for French grammar: A technology-in-practice approach. Language Learning & Technology, 29(1), 1-15. https://www.lltjournal.org/item/1188/
Finally, authors are also encouraged to contact the TIP Forum editor to discuss whether their topic is a potential fit for the Forum. Editor contact: Matt Kessler (kesslerm@usf.edu).
Media Reviews (currently on hiatus)
- LLT has published reviews of professional books and software related to the use of technology in language learning, teaching, and testing but has temporarily suspended these reviews.
- LLT does not accept unsolicited reviews.
Submission process
- All submissions must be uploaded through our online management system at https://opensubmissions.org/index.php/LLT/about/submissions.
You will be asked to first register and log in to use the online system. Complete instructions are provided on the site. Please contact the Managing Editor (llt@hawaii.edu) if you experience difficulty. - All article submissions must be properly anonymized and submitted in an editable document format such as Microsoft Word (.docx) or OpenOffice (.odt) file. Please do not include links in the manuscript that reveal the identity of the authors, and be sure to include all sections of your manuscript (e.g., Tables, Figures, Appendices, etc.) in one file.
You can also remove identifying information from the metadata of your document by following the steps below:
- Microsoft Word for Windows:
- Go to File
- Select Info
- Click on Check for Issues
- Click on Inspect Document
- In the Document Inspector dialog box, select the check boxes to choose the type of hidden content that you want inspected.
- Click Remove All
- Click Close
- Save the document
- Microsoft Word for MacOS:
- Go to Tools
- Click Protect Document
- Select Remove personal information for this file on save
- Click OK and save the file
- Microsoft Word for Windows:
- Articles should be no more than 8,500 words in length, including references and a 200-word abstract. Appendices, not included in the 8,500 words, should be limited to 1,500 words. Lengthy appendices should be included as hyperlinks. Titles of articles should not exceed 10 words and should be adequately descriptive of the content of the article. Forum articles should be no more than 5,000 words in length.
- All submissions should conform to the requirements of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition). All authors are strongly encouraged to have their manuscript reviewed for accuracy and clarity by an experienced academic writer prior to submission and desk review. Both American and British English spelling conventions are acceptable. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references and citations.
- Authors are invited to take advantage of the electronic format by including hypermedia links to multimedia and other materials both within and outside the manuscript. However, please make sure the linked contents do not compromise the anonymity of the authors.
- The editors of LLT reserve the right to make editorial changes to manuscripts accepted for publication for the sake of style or clarity. Authors will be consulted only if the changes are substantive.
- Authors of accepted manuscripts will assign to LLT the permanent right to electronically distribute their articles, but will retain copyright. Authors may republish their work (in print and/or electronic format) as long as they acknowledge LLT as the original publisher.
- Minor edits will be made within 14 days after publication. Post-publication changes involving content will be made only if there is a problem with comprehensibility. Such changes will be accompanied by a note of revision. External links will be validated at the time of publication. Broken links will be fixed at the author’s request.
Review process
All articles go through a two-step review process:
- Internal Review. The editors first review each manuscript to see if it meets the basic requirements (i.e., that it reports on original research or presents an original framework linking previous research, second language acquisition theory, and teaching practices), and that it is of sufficient quality to merit external review. Manuscripts that do not meet these requirements and are principally descriptions of classroom practices or software are not sent out for further review. The internal review generally takes about 8 days. Following the internal review, authors are notified of the results.
- External Review. Submissions which meet the basic requirements are then sent out for double blind peer review by a minimum of 2 experts in the field. The external review takes approximately 2-3 months. Following the external review, the authors are sent copies of the external reviewers’ comments and are notified as to the decision (accept, resubmit for review (major revisions required and a new external review will be conducted), revisions required (minor revisions required), decline/reject).
IRIS
LLT encourages authors to consider uploading their data collection materials to the IRIS database. IRIS is an online repository for data collection materials used for second language research. This includes data elicitation instruments such as interview and observation schedules, language tests and stimuli, pictures, questionnaires, software scripts, url links, word lists, teaching intervention activities, amongst many other types of materials used to elicit data. Please see http://www.iris-database.org for more information and to upload. Any questions, or the materials themselves, may be sent to iris@iris-database.org. When your article has been formally accepted for publication, your instrument(s) can be uploaded to the IRIS database with an 'in press' reference. The IRIS team will add page numbers to the reference once they are available.
5.6 (5-Year impact factor)
The latest CiteScore for LLT is 9.0 and is ranked 10th out of 1001 (99th percentile) in Language and Linguistics. Read more about our CiteScore rankings in other subject areas indexed by Scopus here.
