About

Alison Mackey is a Professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and current Chair of the Linguistics Department. She investigates second language learning across the lifespan, including how additional languages are learned at different ages, looking at both younger and older children, as well as college age, prime-of-life, and elderly adults. One of her primary research interests is research methodology. She has published over 100 articles across all of the top scholarly journals in linguistics, as well as in edited collections by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, John Benjamins and others. She has published 19 books in total, three of which deal with researching children’s language learning and teaching. Her Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, with Sue Gass, won the Mildenberg prize (2012). She is Editor-in-Chief of Cambridge University Press’s Annual Review of Applied Linguistics as well as Editor of the Routledge book series Second Language Research. Google Scholar reports her work has been cited more than 30,000 times in the academic literature (with an i10 index of 114).

What's new?

New for 2024! Book with Lara Bryfonski called The Art and Science of Language Teaching (Cambridge University Press) about applying second language research to teaching, with tips, tricks and practical advice for language teachers. Now available online!

Also forthcoming new book Corrective Feedback in Second Language Learning for Cambridge University Press Elements series.

Winner of Georgetown’s  Presidential Teacher-Scholar Award (2019) and Provost’s Career Research Award (2019)

31,000+ citations listed on Google Scholar (h-index 64, i10-index 114)

Editor-in-Chief, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge University Press) 

#11 (Google Scholar) and #13 of 884 journals in Languages and Linguistics  (Scopus) 

   

  Pages last updated: 01-14-24