The 2022 Albert Valdman Award

Abstract

We express our gratitude to the review board of SSLA for granting our article the Albert Valdman award for outstanding publication this year. In the field of cognitive psychology, scholars have thoroughly examined the significance of auditory processing, that is, the ability to perceive pitch and temporal characteristics of nonverbal sounds, in determining the rate of L1 development and delay. Within the context of 139 post-pubertal L2 learners of English with diverse biographical backgrounds, our study represents one of the initial endeavors to explore the extent to which this domain-general auditory perception can explain individual differences in their segmental, prosodic, lexical, and morphosyntactic proficiency in naturalistic settings. The outcomes of our study support the domain-general view that precise auditory processing constitutes a critical component of the mechanisms underlying and propelling human language acquisition throughout the lifespan. We are elated about this recognition because our work not only enriches the field of SLA but also arouses curiosity and interest in SLA among related disciplines, such as cognitive psychology and neuroscience. It is our hope that our work will encourage more researchers to view SLA as an interesting testing ground for their own topics, leading to evenmore interdisciplinary research across various dimensions.