Call for papers
The conference is intended to bring
together academics representing a range of disciplines in humanities
and social sciences, practitioners and EU/national policy makers,
concerned with multilingualism and linguistic diversity in Europe.
Proposals are invited for original and previously unpublished
research papers that broadly fall within the following themes and topics:
A.
Language, Culture and
Identity: Within the context of ongoing
glocalisation, the emergence of multiple identities compels to
redefine the role of languages and lingua francas as identity
markers, and as factors contributing to the distinctiveness of
culture-specific environments. The overall objective of this
thematic block is to clarify the saliency of language as an identity
marker in the EU. This points to the role of language in identity
formation processes, the existence of language-based multiple
identities, and the significance of language as part of well-being
of their speakers, and primary symbol of possible secondary
cultural, economical, political and other non-linguistic motives.
B.
Language Policy and Planning:
This thematic bloc is addressed to researchers
interested not only on the institutional, intrinsic and professional
process-oriented dimension, but also to those concerned with an
often unnoticed, implicit or unintended language policy and language
planning processes. A consensus on the demarcation between such
concepts as "language policy", "language
planning" and related concepts ("aménagement
linguistique", "language politics") will be
discussed. The issues to examine concern the adequacy of the
existing language policy and language planning efforts in the EU
countries, identifying possible discrepancies between theory and
practice.
C.
Multilingualism and
Education: The main issue to be tackled concerns
the challenge of becoming not only multilingual, but multicompetent
in a multilingual environment and the ways of developing the
capacity to behave in a flexible and adequate manner in concrete
multilingual contexts. The two main fields in which these questions
can be answered, are in general a) Second Language Acquisition,
including all forms of language acquisition apart from first
language acquisition, from contact languages present in the
territory to school learning of truly foreign languages) and b)
bilingual Education (including concurrent learning of several
languages).
D.
Language and Economy:
This topic is focused on the interplay between
language and economy and their impact on the building of a
knowledge-based society. The focus will be on the relationship
between language, geographical mobility and New Economy growth
patterns. If we conceive of the economic order as a determining
force in society, and if we take into account that economy cannot do
without language, then it follows that economy has profound
implications for language (its use and status, the emergence of
lingua francas) in society. This is all the more true as economy
itself has shifted from industrial age to a knowledge economy.
The abstract
submission
deadline for individual papers is
October 1, 2009.
Abstracts should be written in English, while oral
presentations can be made in any of the European languages. (no
translation services will be provided!).
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
The deadline for abstract
submission has been extended to 31
st
October, 2009
.