[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 9 | April 6, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]
To provide an access among many to rich ideas on educational excellence, International Burch University starts holding its annual conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (FLTAL). The FLTAL Conference aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and educators with interests in language teaching and linguistics at all levels from around the world. The theme of the FLTAL 2015 conference, “Language Assessment for Multilingualism: Promoting Linguistic Diversity and Intercultural Communication” is designed to attract the research communities to promote connections between theory and practice and explore different perspectives on the application of research findings into practice.
We are kindly welcoming scholars coming from the international and local regions as well as language teachers and prospective teachers to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The overarching theme of this annual conference reflects important trends and issues on language teaching and linguistics. The current conference will bring together numerous famed applied linguists and scholars to give speeches, conduct panel discussions, and present research findings and directions. With inclusive support and recognition from both its attendees and the university itself, this conference will take effort in keeping its quality and hence making contribution to the field of language education.
FLTAL 2015 intends to remain open to linguistic and cross-cultural education-related topics broadly defined, looking more closely into the current dynamics in the world between old and new trends, local and global tendencies, progressive and conservative views, stabilization and destabilization patterns, national and global identities. In that context, the special focus theme proposed for the conference this time is universal vs. culture specific in the teaching foreign language and applied linguistics.
It is expected that FLTAL will attract a significant number of front-ranking academics, professionals and policy makers working in the broad area of language education, linguistic and intercultural education. The main aim of the conference is to promote the values of multilingualism and intercultural cooperation in a rapidly changing and communication-driven society with cross-border and culture-convergent encounters. Our task is to re-examine and re-define key questions on our existing agenda, as well as to identify new collaborative and networking opportunities, both of which will inform future directions of research and development.
This conference invites papers that investigate foreign language teaching and learning in the following streams:
Applied linguistics
Cognitive linguistics
Cognitive and construction grammars
Discourse analyses
English for specific purposes
Independent / Autonomous learning
Innovation in language teaching and learning
Intercultural Education
Language acquisition and learning
Language curriculum development
Language education
Language development, impairment, attrition, and loss
Language teacher education
Language teaching methodology
Language testing and assessment
Language program evaluation
Linguistics
Literature
Mental spaces and conceptual blending
Metaphor and metonymy
Pragmatics
Reading development for young learners
Semantics
Sign Language
TESOL / TESL / TEFL
Other FLTAL related issues
Types of presentations
Participants are invited to submit abstracts of papers, workshops or posters to the conference Program Committee. All types of presentations will be in Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, English, Russian and Turkish.
Papers
Paper presentations on any of the themes listed above are invited. The paper presenters are kindly asked to restrict their presentations to 15 minutes followed by 3 minutes for discussion led by the chair of the session, and Q&A as well. Each session will therefore have a total duration of 18 minutes.
Workshops
Workshop sessions must include active audience participation through experiencing and discussing tasks provided by the workshop facilitator. Workshop sessions will generally be around 30 minutes but, with detailed justification.
Posters and e-posters
Posters are invited on any of the themes listed above. Posters may be any size up to a maximum of A1 (594mm x 840mm) or equivalent made up of separate sheets. Electronic versions of each poster accepted can be in the following formats up to a maximum size of 10MB. They may be posted on the conference website for 12 months following the conference:
-Windows OS
-Microsoft Powerpoint
-Word 2003 files
-PDF files
-jpeg, wmv, Flash or QuickTime files
Criteria for Acceptance
All abstracts will be blind reviewed by the Editorial and Advisory Board. Relevance to the themes of the conference and originality of approach are key considerations in the acceptance of papers, workshops and posters. The Board reserves the right to decline paper/workshop/poster proposals without assigning reasons.
Presenters of papers, workshops and posters will receive acceptance letters, thereby facilitating sponsorship from employers.
Equipment
Video replay equipment, overhead projectors, laptops (with Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003) and data projectors can be supplied if reserved on the proposal form. Please request equipment when registering for the conference