In his state-of-the-art review Amos Paran presents a very positive outlook on the use of literature in language teaching and suggests that in EFL, at last, there has been a move towards integrating language and literature. Reviewing recent research on reading, learning, and teaching literature in a variety of foreign languages, he focuses on the definition of literature, the language of literature, and on textbooks, and looks at emerging research in this area. Principled evidence is emerging which shows the benefits of using literature; this has much to offer language learning, as it combines attention to meaning with attention to form. The paper is accompanied by a comparative review of books by Heather Hewitt.

This issue also sees the introduction of a new strand in the journal, the Research Timeline. Continuing the traditional research survey ethos of LT, the timeline provides a distinct approach to such a survey by graphically summarising the main shifts and movements and key research in the history of an area related to the main state-of-the-art review in that issue, together with the representative bibliographical references. The timeline spans a much greater period than our main state-of-the-art review and in a way which highlights key research and thought rather than engages in discussion and critical address. Thus, it might be the starting point for a reader to delve deeper into further study of the area. It will also make it easier to spot the emerging tendencies in an area of research and monitor their development. Similarly, the emphasis on the historical perspective will help give more sense of the context of ideas and their development – and by extension, more sense of the ratio of transitory to long-term ideas and meaningfulness. In this first timeline, Keiko Koda and Pooja Reddy look at cross-linguistic transfer in L2 reading. Richard Johnstone returns for his review of research, highlighting some of the most significant work in the field of L2 teaching and learning in 2006.

Our plenary speech section sees contributions covering genre and academic writing (Ken Hyland) and teachers accessing and interpreting corpus information (Michael McCarthy). Hyland maintains that the last decade has seen increasing attention given to the notion of genre and its application in language teaching and learning. He examines some of the research and practical applications of these views by looking at what the approach offers teachers of academic writing. McCarthy argues a shift is needed in the relationship between teachers, academics and publishers, from the teacher seen as consumer to the teacher as participant in the corpus revolution. He then discusses the questions which need to be asked in evaluating corpora and the pedagogical resources based upon them.

In the Research in Progress section, we include the annual reports on the BAAL Seminars sponsored by Cambridge University Press, which in the 2007 series discussed language testing and assessment, online spoken interactions, and communicative competence. Sue Wharton and colleagues survey the activities of the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick.