Nobody expected an international lockdown in 2020, much less for it to continue into 2021; I certainly did not expect to be writing of this again for January 2022. As many of us have got used to teaching from home, so research in the classroom has diminished, giving way to online or hybrid formats that have generated considerable food for thought, as well as research output. Much of this however has been ad hoc, comparing previous course formats against current constraints, with computers and other technology largely given over to this online condition rather than pushing the boundaries of research in CALL. In terms of submissions to ReCALL, the results have been three-fold: (a) a somewhat higher rejection rate; (b) a slightly slower time from submission to acceptance, as reviewers have been more difficult to find; (c) a delay in accepted papers being assigned to an issue – although they are of course available online as soon as they are ready (see FirstView articles). This last point has yet to really be felt, but to pre-empt future delays we have decided to increase the number of papers in each issue. Assuming the rate of submissions returns to pre-Covid levels, this will allow us to catch up with the backlog, and make the situation a little more comfortable for special issues in the future. Therefore, this issue is slightly bigger than usual, with eight papers in total, but as fascinating as always!
In other news, Cambridge University Press instigated a new prize for the ‘best’ ReCALL paper published in the preceding year (issues 32.3 to 33.2), though ‘best’ is of course a delicate question. The editors drew up a shortlist of two papers from each issue to be voted on by the full editorial board, the prize this year being awarded to Christine Appel and Joan-Tomàs Pujolà for their paper in issue 33.2 titled “Designing speaking interaction in LMOOCs: An eTandem approach” – congratulations to them!
Also, many of you will have seen the call for papers for a ReCALL special issue on Replication in CALL to be guest edited by Cornelia Tschichold (Swansea University, UK). The deadline for submission of full papers is 15th May 2022, but do please get in touch with her if you have any questions. The issue itself is due out as ReCALL 35.2 in May 2023.
I hope you enjoy our new publication, and keep up the good work in CALL as well as your health wherever you may be around the world.