Submissions

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Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.
  • The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  • The manuscript is in Microsoft Word format.
  • The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines.
  • FONT: Use Times New Roman 12-point; use italics or bold for emphasis; do NOT underline text, except for URLs.
  • HEADINGS can be numbered or not. Authors can decide. Use proper MS Word Style headings (H1, H2, etc.). Text using "Normal' style and just made big or bold is not a style heading. Please use sentence case in headings (NOT uppercase) — refer to Author Guidelines.
  • MARGINS are 1" (or 2.5 cm) for top, left, bottom and right. This is incidentally the MS Word default.
  • PARAGRAPHS: Line spacing is set at 'Exactly’ 16 pt. Text is justified.
  • NB: Provide DOIs of journal articles in the Reference List.
  • Provide an ORCiD (strongly recommended).
  • Anonymise the manuscript: (a) Redact the author and affiliated institution. (b) Remove author details from file properties, see: https://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/jlt/announcement/view/46
  • Upload TWO documents: (a) the manuscript and (b) a covering letter with details of all authors, the full title of the article and—if you can—the names and contact details of three possible referees.

Author Guidelines

To ensure a successful submission, please adhere to the JLT Style Guide for Authors below. Non-compliance can hold up the process: we may ask you to correct and resubmit before we can send the manuscript for review. 

Page fees

R3,000 up to 20 pages (including the cover page and the last page with author's contact details). The cost for subsequent pages will be R300 each.  Once your article has been approved for publication by the editor, you will be invoiced for the above fees. Stellenbosch University authors are exempt of page fees. SAALT members receive a 20% discount on page fees. 

Kindly note that the publication of your article is dependent on full payment beforehand.

Submissions: upload 2 documents please

1. A cover letter which includes

  1. TITLE. The Title of the paper.
  2. AUTHORS. The title of the author (Mr/Ms Dr Prof.), full address and email particulars of the author(s) and the instituional affiliation. Please provide an ORCiD if available. (Authors are strongly advised to register for one: https://orcid.org/register.  An ORCIDiD is your unique academic identifier connecting your names with your work throughout your research career.)
    In case of more than one author, the name of the corresponding author (also responsible for the payment of page fees) must be marked with an asterisk (*).
  3. REVIEWERS. A proposal with the titles, names, full addresses and email addresses of three scholars who would be able to provide impartial and informed reviews of the quality of the manuscript would be helpful, but is not essential.

2. A copy of the manuscript

  • The paper must contain the title of the paper, an abstract (approx. 200 words), keywords (minimum of 5;  maximum of 10), and then the manuscript must follow.
  • Ensure a blind review:
    (a) No contributing authors should be indicated on this copy and references to particular institutions should be removed from the paper. For review purposes, refer to University X instead of the name of the institution. 
    (b) Remove personal details in the file properties, here's how:
          File>>Info>>Inspect Document>>Check for issues>>Document and Personal Information>>Remove all. 
  • Submission of a paper is taken to imply that it has not been published elsewhere and that it is not under consideration elsewhere.
  • Submission of a paper also implies that it was language edited.

The review process

A process of double-blind peer review is used. The Editor receives and integrates reviews and communicates with the corresponding author/s.

Word processing

FONT-SIZE: Use ‘Normal’ MS Word format in Times New Roman 12 point font.

PARAGRAPHS: For line spacing, choose "Exactly": 16 pt. Single spacing is too dense; 1.5 line spacing is too loose. Think of the reviewers! Your manuscript must be easy to read. 

HEADINGS: If you know how to do this, we request that you use proper Microsoft Word headings (in 'Styles'). Note: your manuscript will not be rejcted if you cannot master this. 
Headings can be numbered or not - your choice.  Use bold and italics to indicate headings instead of underlining. 

REFERENCE LIST: Please make a hanging indent of .5 inches or 1.27 cm (normally the latest MS Word default). The Reference list is not justified for the reason that long URLs are sometimes the cause of uneven word spacing. 

Length of manuscripts:  6000 - 8000 words. Contact the editor if you have a strong case to deviate from this. 

Length of abstract: 200 words (approximately).

All manuscripts must have an English abstract. An additional abstract in one other language is optional.

The main points of the citation style chosen for the Journal for Language Teaching are summarised below.

References in the text

When a page or part is relevant:  Smith (1997: 14) or Smith (1997: 14-16)

As in the example above, we  prefer a space after the colon and before the page numbers.

When a whole work is relevant: Smith (1997)

When more than one author’s work is relevant:  (Smith, 1997: 14; Selepe, 2011: 3; Abrams, 2013: 4)

References (list)

All works referred to in the text must be listed in the Reference list, and vice versa.

BOOKS

Brown, K. (ed.) 2005. Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. 2nd revised edition. Oxford: Elsevier.  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/referenceworks/978008044854   [Accessed: 27 Match 2016.]

↑ Since 2022, we  have dropped "Available:" before an URL.

Doughty, C. & Williams, J.  (eds.) 1998. Focus on form in the classroom.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

↑ Note: (eds.) is in brackets, but no brackets enclose the date.

Note on the above
Sentence case is used for the titles of books, articles and papers. 'Sentence case' means that everything, except the first letter of a title,  is in lower case.  Exceptions would be proper nouns which need to be capitalised, as in normal English usage. 

→ OPTION: Some styles capitalize book titles. While JLT inhouse style prefers lower case, authors may capitalize book titles, provided that they stick to it thoughout their entire article; and (b)  that they do not capitalize articles, prepositions and short conjunctions. Consistency then often becomes a challenge — it may be easier to just stick with sentence case!

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

Mbembe, A. 2016. Decolonising of the university: new directions. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 15(1): 29-45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022215618513

Sebolai, K. & Huff, L. 2015. Academic literacy curriculum renewal at a South African university: a case study. Journal for Language Teaching 49(1): 333-351. https://doi.org/10.4314/jlt.v49i1.13  

↑ Note the full URL hyperlink with prefix "https://doi.org" ...
Also note: no full stop after a URL or DOI.
An access date is not necessary after a DOI.
Since 2022, JLT no longer requires "DOI:" in front of the doi.

Truscott, J. 1996.  The case against grammar correction in L2  language classes.  Language Learning 46: 327-246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1996.tb01238.x [Journal titles are italicized, always]

Notes on the above

1. Sentence case is used for a journal article title, whereas Title Case is used for the Journal Title. 

2. Subtitles start in lower case. EXAMPLE:  "Academic literacy curriculum renewal at a South African university: a case study.".
    Exception: if a subtitle contains a verb, and can stand on its own, it can start with a capital letter.
    EXAMPLE: Writing-intensive courses across the law curriculum: Developing law students’ critical thinking and writing skills.

3. Have you notcied? There is no comma after the Journal Title:  Language Learning 46: 327-246.

ARTICLES/CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

Thompson, I.  1995.  Assessment of foreign language comprehension.  In: Mendelssohn, D.J. & Rubin, J.  (eds.) 1995.  A guide for the teaching of L2 listening.  San Diego: Dominic Press.  pp. 14-31.​

UNPUBLISHED THESES, REPORTS, ETC.

Brunfaut, T. 2008. Foreign language reading for academic purposes. PhD thesis, University of Antwerp. (Unpublished).
Unpublished titles are not italicized. 

THESES/DISSERTATIONS (ONLINE)

Van Dyk, T.J.  2010. Konstitutiewe voorwaardes vir die ontwerp van ’n toets van akademiese geletterdheid. PhD thesis, University of the Free State.  http://scholar.ufs.ac.za:8080/xmlui/handle/11660/1918 Accessed: 27 March 2015.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

Author (if available). Title of article.  Sunday Express, 2004: 10 April, p. 12.

INTERNET

Author.  Date (when information was published or created or revised).  Title of document/page.  URL  [Accessed: Date].

 If a DOI or a permanent link is recorded, an access date need not be added.

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