Since 2014, EuroSLA annually presents a distinguished scholar award to an individual who has carried out outstanding research in the field of Second Language Acquisiton, contributing to the field in general and to EuroSLA in particular.
The first EuroSLA distinguished scholar award was unanimously voted to go to Vivian Cook, EuroSLA founder and first president.
In 2015, the distinguished scholar award went to David Singleton, past president and long-standing member of the association.
In 2016, the Distinguished Scholar Award was presented to Professor Carmen Munoz, an outstanding researcher in multilingualism and second language learning, and a long-standing member of EuroSLA who has inspired many PhD students and early-career researches.
In 2017, the Distinguished Scholar Award went to Professor Michael Sharwood Smith, an exceptional researcher in bilingual language development and one of the founding members of EuroSLA.