Sally Jacoby

Sally Jacoby

After a courageous battle with lung cancer, Dr. Sally Jacoby, 58, distinguished teacher and researcher in applied linguistics, energetic conversationalist, theater and music enthusiast, post-modernist thinker, and Editorial Advisory Board member of Language Assessment Quarterly, passed away on July 27, 2007, in Dover, New Hampshire, USA.

Sally was an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of New Hampshire in Durham from 1996 to 2007. She received her Ph.D. in applied linguistics from UCLA, her M.A. in applied English linguistics from the University of Birmingham, and her Bachelor's degrees from the Northwestern University and Tel Aviv University. Her areas of specialization included discourse and conversational analysis, talk and interaction in everyday and institutional settings and indigenous assessment of communication performance. Her publications are not primarily in language assessment but an often-cited paper in the field of language assessment is the one she co-authored with Tim McNamara (1999) based on the concept of indigenous assessment criteria. This work was also discussed in Dan Douglas' book Assessing Language for Specific Purposes: “Jacoby defines indigenous assessment criteria as those used by subject specialists in assessing the communicative performances of apprentices in academic and vocational fields” (p. 68). Sally was also a frequent presenter at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Conferences where she could be found in fine form ready to discuss many topics that were brought to the podium. A select list of Sally's authored and co-authored presentations and publications are provided at the end.

I knew Sally from our days together as doctoral students in the applied linguistics program at UCLA. In addition to discussing common academic work, we spent thousands of hours chatting about other mutual interests in the areas of English, American and European literature; baroque, romantic and classical Western and Indian music; Merchant-Ivory films, the Raj, colonial and post-colonial India; jazz, theater, opera and ballet; Barthes, Bakhtin, and Vygotsky; newspapers, magazines, the New York Review of Books and Tikkun, and the writing of abstracts and papers for publications.

It was these diverse interests and also the lack of a publication venue for student ideas that propelled us to found the student-run journal Issues in Applied Linguistics in 1989 (along with Patrick Gonzales, Anne Lazaraton, Agnes He and Maria Egbert). We strongly felt that this avenue would make a difference in terms of dissemination of new student ideas. Sally was initially my assistant editor; then took over as editor in 1992. As editor in-charge of manuscript revisions and proofs, she was very meticulous and attentive to detail. So, in 2003, when I needed to find members for the LAQ Editorial Advisory Board, Sally was among the first I asked. She gladly accepted and offered advice on the planned features and the focus of the journal. Sally also reviewed manuscripts with great care and while being critical offered constructive suggestions to authors. Last year, she agreed to serve on the Board for another term.

We will remember her for her gracious and gentle manner, for her enthusiasm in discussing diverse topics, for her wit and humor, and for her scholarly approach to language and linguistics, and for many enjoyable evenings with wine and curry.