October 8, 2025

Dear Second Language Research (SLR) SIG colleagues, 

It is a great honor to serve our SIG as chair. Like many of us, I consider SLR one of my scholarly homes - a place where I have grown, learned, and been inspired by colleagues across the years. My journey with the SLR SIG began in 2015, when I first joined as a graduate student and participated in the mentoring session organized by the then-SIG leadership team. Over the past decade, I have benefited tremendously from our SLR SIG, receiving mentorship by numerous scholars along the way. I am deeply humbled to have this opportunity to give back to this community that has nurtured me and so many others in our shared work.  

In this role, I deeply appreciate the many contributions of our previous SIG leadership in their visionary work to build and sustain our SLR community. I am especially grateful to the last two past chairs, Dr. Liv Davila and Dr. David Nieto (our current past chair), and their leadership teams for their mentorship and leadership for keeping our SIG a vibrant community at AERA. I am also excited to work with an incredibly committed and talented leadership team, including Program Chair/Chair-elect Dr. Chris Montecillo Leider, Secretary/Treasurer Dr. Matthew Deroo, Membership Officer Dr. Caitlin Fine, Newsletter Editor Dr. Shuzhan Li, Student Representative Golnar Fotouhi, and Social Medial and Webmaster Xinhang Hermione Hu.  

Building on the legacy of previous SIG leadership, this year our SLR SIG leadership team has decided to focus on fostering community and opportunities for graduate students and junior faculty, while promoting critical research in our field. Aligned with this mission, we launched the inaugural SLR SIG Critical Language Education Seed Research Grant, designed to support doctoral students and early career scholars in the field of language education in conducting critical research that seeks to understand and/or address inequality. This past summer, we also hosted a webinar for graduate students on writing effective conference proposals, led by Dr. Deroo, Dr. Li, and Golnar Fotouhi. Currently, we have launched a bi-weekly graduate student writing group, led by our SIG's graduate representative, Golnar Fotouhi.

It also feels empowering to be in community with our SIG members, especially at a moment when systemic inequalities, anti-immigrant policies, and global crisis converge to threaten the rights and well-being of vulnerable communities, including immigrant and multilingual learners we serve. The recent rescission of English service for English learners, along with the executive order declaring English the official language, highlights how policies can further marginalize multilingual learners in schools and the society that they seek refugee and protection (Ho & Pannett, 2025; Meckler & McDaniel, 2025).  Immigrant communities - and children in particular - are increasingly targeted and attacked, making our work as language educators and researchers even more urgent. Being part of this SIG community allows us to respond collectively, through advocacy, scholarship, and classroom practices, to provide critical support and affirm the linguistic, cultural, and human rights of these learners. 

My team and I are here to serve and to strengthen our SLR community. Your ideas and suggestions are vital - if you have thoughts on activities, events, or initiatives that could support our SLR SIG members, please share them through this Google form or reach out to us by email. Together, we can shape a SIG that is responsive, inclusive, and empowering for all.

In solidarity, 

Kongji Qin 

AERA SLR SIG Chair (2025-2027)

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