Judith A. Langer

Judith A. Langer is an American educator in the field of literacy research. She is Vincent O’Leary Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has held academic positions at Stanford, Berkeley, and New York University. Langer served as editor of the journal Research in the Teaching of English from 1984 to 1992. Langer is known for her research into literacy and how people engage with words in classroom settings.

Education and career
Langer earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the City College of New York. She earned her Ph.D. from Hofstra University in 1978 and held professorial appointments at C.W. Post University, New York University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University before joining the University at Albany as full professor in 1987, rising to the rank of distinguished professor in 2001.

Between 1987 and 2019, Langer co-directed the Center on Literature Teaching & Learning and the National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement. She also established the Albany Institute for Research in Education.

As of 2024, she is the Vincent O’Leary Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University at Albany.

Langer has served as the editor of Research in the Teaching of English, is a member of six editorial boards, and has reviewed for 26 journals and numerous research agencies worldwide.

Research
Langer's early career included work on A Text-Semantic Analysis of Standardized Reading, a research project funded by the National Science Foundation directed by the cognitive linguist Charles Fillmore. This project influenced her later work on envisionment-building in literature and learning.

Langer's research focuses on understanding the strategies used to comprehend literature and informational experiences. Her work has influenced learning, instruction, and assessment practices. The Annenberg Foundation developed three television series based on Langer’s research on literature.

In 2011, the English Journal noted Langer's contributions to the definition of the English/Language Arts curriculum. The sociocognitive theory she developed in the early 1980s forms the basis of her work on learning and instruction.

Langer has authored numerous articles and thirteen books, including Envisioning Literature and Envisioning Knowledge. She also co-authored How Writing Shapes Thinking and Writing Instruction that Works with Arthur Applebee.

Books
also published as:
 * Applebee, A.N. & Langer, J.A. Writing Instruction that Works: Proven Methods for Middle and High School Classrooms. NY: Teachers College Press (2013).
 * Langer, J.A. Envisioning Knowledge: Building Literacy in the Academic Disciplines. NY: Teachers College Press (2011).
 * Langer, J.A. (2011). Envisioning Literature, 2nd edition. NY: Teachers College Press. (Translated into Chinese, Swedish, Korean).
 * J.A. Getting to Excellent: How to Create Better Schools, NY: Teachers College Press, 2004 (translated into Chinese).
 * Langer, J.A. Effective Literacy Instruction: Building Successful Reading and Writing Programs. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English (2002).
 * Langer, J.A. Envisioning Literature: Literary Understanding and Literature Instruction. NY: Teachers College Press, 1995
 * Langer, J. A. (2005). Litterara forestallningsvarldar. Goteborg, Sweden: Daidalos Press
 * Flood, J. & Langer, J.A. (Eds.) Literature Instruction: Practice and Policy. NY: Scholastic Press, 1995.
 * Langer, J.A. (Ed.) Literature Instruction: A Focus on Student Response. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1992. (translated into Greek.)
 * Langer, J.A. and Applebee, A. How Writing Shapes Thinking: Studies of Teaching and Learning. Research Monograph Series. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English (1987).
 * Langer, J.A. (Ed.) Language, Literacy, and Culture: Issues of Society and Schooling, Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987.
 * Langer, J.A. Children Reading and Writing: Structures and Strategies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex (1986).
 * Kamil, M., Langer J.A. and Shanahan, T. Understanding Reading and Writing Research. Allyn and Bacon, 1985.
 * Langer, J.A. and Smith-Burke, M. (Eds.). Reader Meets Author/Bridging the Gap: A Psycholinguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspective. Barksdale, Delaware: International Reading Association, 1982.

Awards and honors
Langer was inducted into the International Reading Hall of Fame in 2002 and won the Albert J. Harris award from the International Literacy Association for research on teaching students with reading difficulties in 2003. She was awarded the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English from the National Council of Teachers of English for her 12th book, Envisioning Knowledge, in 2013. She was named a fellow of the American Educational Research Association in 2008, the first year the fellows were elected. In 2005 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Uppsala. and recognition as one of the world’s "Imaginative Scientists" by Lund University.

She has also received a Distinguished Benton Fellowship at the University of Chicago and a Scholar-in-Residence position at the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy.

Personal life
Langer married fellow literacy researcher Arthur Applebee, and the two were the first wife and husband both to reach the rank of distinguished professor within the New York State universities.