About the Journal
The journal Živi jezici publishes original scientific research, review articles, reviews, chronicles, reports, and bibliographies in applied linguistics, (foreign) language learning and teaching, linguistics, cultural and literary studies. It is an open access, blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting scholarly exchange among researchers and teachers of modern languages.
In 1957, Živi jezici, a journal of the The Association for Foreign Languages and Literatures of Serbia, was founded in Belgrade. The editor-in-chief was Aleksandar Belić, one of the greatest Serbian linguists of all time. The first issue was marked as Year I, number 1-2, and in accordance with the programmatic commitment of the editorial board, the first articles dedicated to the teaching and learning of foreign languages in our environment appeared, including critical voices, such as Zlatko Melvinger, who - like some of our contemporaries - pointed to inefficient foreign language teaching, lack of practice in learning foreign languages, insufficient umber of trained teachers, shortage of school premises, "overcrowding of students in classes, lack of modern technical means". One of the missions of the newly launched journal was to support and promote the youngest philological science, which at that time was still in its infancy - glottodidactics. For the first time, glottodidacticians were able to publish the results of their research in a serious scientific and professional journal, as well as their thoughts on language education policy and other issues of importance for improving foreign language teaching in our environment and beyond. The sphere of influence of the journal, namely, did not include only Serbia, but the entire Yugoslav area at that time - some of the biggest names in Serbian and Yugoslav Linguistics and Applied Linguistics published articles in it, and their articles were often a turning point in foreign language teaching or hinted at the need to introduce new and innovative forms of teaching methods in classroom. In addition, primary and secondary school teachers, who shared their experiences in foreign language teaching, as well as pedagogues and didactics, published their works in the Živi jezici. In addition to scientific papers in language and literature, the regular sections of the journal from the very beginning included reviews of new textbooks, but also other publications from all domains of philology, as well as articles from practice and chronicles that recorded the activities of the Society.
In the first period of the history of Živi jezici, thirty-five one-volume or two-volume issues were published, until in 1994 the last issue, prepared in the previous two years (1992-1993), was presented to readers. Due to complicated circumstances, this journal did not appear for readers for the next 22 years. Convinced that glottodidactic science still needs its own journal, the Association for Foreign Languages and Literatures of Serbia made a decision in 2015 to renew the journal Živi jezici. In 2016, the publishing of journals was restarted and, since 2020, it is assigned M52 category according to the valid Rulebook on Categorization and Ranking of Scientific Journals of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. The editors of the journal expect its prompt positioning among international scientific philological journals in the field of theoretical and applied linguistics, literary theory, as well as didactics and methods of teaching foreign languages and literature.
