diff --git a/olmo/tokenizer.py b/olmo/tokenizer.py
index 7f5026302..885594999 100644
--- a/olmo/tokenizer.py
+++ b/olmo/tokenizer.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import os
+import inspect
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import List, Optional, Union
 
@@ -180,7 +181,12 @@ def encode_batch(self, inputs: List[str], add_special_tokens: bool = True) -> Li
         if truncate_to is not None and add_special_tokens:
             truncate_to -= self.num_special_tokens_to_add(False)
 
-        batch_encoding = self.base_tokenizer.encode_batch(inputs)
+        # Check if the base tokenizer's encode_batch method supports add_special_tokens parameter
+        if 'add_special_tokens' in inspect.signature(self.base_tokenizer.encode_batch).parameters:
+            batch_encoding = self.base_tokenizer.encode_batch(inputs, add_special_tokens=add_special_tokens)
+        else:
+            # Fallback to original behavior if the parameter isn't supported
+            batch_encoding = self.base_tokenizer.encode_batch(inputs)
 
         all_input_ids = []
         for encoding in batch_encoding: