Remembering Mike Long

A professor at UMD for 16 years, Long was a towering figure in the field of second language acquisition.

By Colin Phillips

It is with deep sadness that we mark the passing of Mike Long, who died on February 21, 2021. Mike was a professor of second language acquisition at the University of Maryland for the past 16 years. 

Mike came to the University of Maryland in 2005 to lead the newly unified School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and to found a new graduate program in second language acquisition (SLA). His arrival was also closely tied with the growth of the Center for Advanced Study of Language, and he played a key role in the emergence of the broad UMD language community that we know today. A generation of SLA graduates owe their success to Mike’s mentorship directly or to the rich environment for SLA research that he helped to put in place.

Mike was a towering figure in the field of SLA, with an unusual ability to straddle the boundary between cognitive science and pedagogical research. He was especially influential in the area of task based language teaching, and he received worldwide recognition for developing the theoretical core for the field. His work was enormously influential in his field, with 17 of his publications garnering over 1,000 citations. He was rarely shy about his opinions, but always modest about his achievements. 

“Mike combined intellectual rigor with extreme modesty—he would never bring up his enormous impact on the field of SLA to argue his position. He was always energized by talking shop with his students, peers and everybody interested in SLA,” said his colleague Professor Kira Gor.

Prior to coming to Maryland, Mike spent over 20 years at the University of Hawaii, where he was instrumental in developing one of the world’s leading SLA programs. Before that, he did his first degree in law at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He then earned a postgraduate teaching certificate at the University of London and a Master of Arts in applied linguistics from the University of Essex, before moving to the United States for a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He also spent a brief amount of time as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. 

“We are struggling to accept that we will not hear his witty commentary on all things in life, from current events to art, soccer, movies, food … He had a brilliant way of talking about everything that mattered to him and a unique talent for appreciating life. And above all, a lot of generosity, in spirit and in action,” said Gor.

We are grateful to have had Mike as a colleague for so many years, and we send our condolences to his many family, friends, colleagues and students. 

Photo of Mike Long courtesy of Colin Phillips.