CCERBAL 2023 CONFERENCE

BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM: TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCIES, MOBILITY, AND WELL-BEING

PRE-CONFERENCE EVENTS: MAY 3, 2023. CONFERENCE DATES: MAY 4-6, 2023.

Conference format: Most presentations will be in person. There will be a limited number of pre-recorded presentations, which all participants will be able to access on their own time. There will also be some live virtual presentations integrated into the regular program. 

Plenary speakers: 

Sunny Man Chu Lau (Bishop's University)

Peter MacIntyre (Cape Breton University)

Caroline Payant (Université du Québec à Montréal)

Meike Wernicke (University of British Columbia)

Conference chairs: 

Nikolay Slavkov (University of Ottawa), Pierre-Luc Paquet (University of Texas at Tyler), Nina Woll (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières)

Overview

The focus of the CCERBAL 2023 Conference will be on conceptual, empirical, and practice-based contributions on language pedagogy, technology, assessment, language policy, family language policy, and beyond. This call welcomes a wide variety of interdisciplinary submissions which may (but are not required to) address the following three overlapping themes: transversal competencies, mobility, and well-being. 

Transversal competencies have recently come to the forefront in education and in society more generally. Their definition can be elusive, and they are variably known as soft skills, 21st century skills, core competencies, transferable skills, etc. (cf. Council of Europe ECML, 2021). Some examples of transversal competencies proposed by UNESCO (2015) include global citizenship, inter- and intra-personal skills, critical and innovative thinking, as well as physical and psychological health. Transversal competencies are inextricably related to language teaching and learning; they also apply to family and societal bi/multilingualism in a globalized world and thus have overarching social significance. 

Mobility is another defining characteristic of 21st century society. Global flows and exchanges of ideas, internationalized education, personal travel, transnational families, economic migration, as well as fleeing wars and persecution are types of mobility that raise new and important questions. In addition, digital technology has offered yet another type of mobility in parallel to physical mobility. Such new developments require renewed impetus for innovative pedagogies and policies, in many of the following contexts: language teaching and learning; bi/multilingual use in academic, cultural, business, and daily life exchanges; supporting global diversity and inclusion; empowering plurilingual migrant populations in school classrooms to become confident and competent users of a host country’s language while also creating the necessary conditions for preserving their original languages and identities; and many others. 

Human well-being is tightly connected to the above themes. Recent work on language teacher well-being has raised questions about how to ensure teachers are well-supported, validated, retained in the profession, encouraged to innovate, and engage learners; learner well-being is a key issue in a context of multilingual and multicultural classrooms with various unique learner needs and objectives. Supporting the development of bilingual and multilingual children at the family level and building bridges to schooling and other formal educational contexts also form part of what is known as harmonious bi/multilingualism (De Houwer, 2020) and general well-being. Finally, an overall focus on general well-being for all stakeholders has become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic and the eagerly anticipated post-pandemic recovery. 

Non-exhaustive list of topics: 

• Language teaching, learning, and assessment

• Language, technology, gamification, digital citizenship, virtual mobility, artificial intelligence

• Language policy and family language policy

• Languages of schooling, immersion studies, bi-/multilingual education, language intensive programs

• Links between home languages and school languages 

• Flexible, experiential, community-based, and informal language learning

• Indigenized curriculum development and delivery

• Value-based curricula, democracy, and peacebuilding

• Inclusion, social justice, and equity

• Language, mobility, and migration

• Linguistic security/insecurity

• Linguistic risk-taking

• Mediation, language development across the lifespan

• Nurturing the next generation of researchers and teachers 

• Academic literacies, multiliteracies, and multimodality

• Third spaces and dialogue between spaces

• Plurilingualism, multilingualism, translanguaging

• Official languages, Heritage languages, Modern languages, Indigenous languages, Sign languages, Minority languages, ‘Big’ languages vs. ‘Small’ languages, Languages other than English (LOTE)

• Canadian Language Benchmarks

• CEFR and its companion volume

• Psychology of language learning, emotions, positive psychology

Format of submission: oral presentations, posters, round tables, thematic symposia, and workshops. Options to participate both in person and online will be available. 

***The call is now closed and the peer review process is complete. Notifications of acceptance were sent in December 2022. Registration is open.***

Important dates: 

Submissions open: July 1, 2022

Submissions close: November 1, 2022

Acceptance notifications and registration: early 2023

Pre-conference events: May 3, 2023; Conference dates: May 4-6, 2023; 

Venue: Canadian Centre for Studies and Research on Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL), Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI), University of Ottawa.

Featured events: Plenary sessions, round tables and thematic symposia, professional development workshops; social activities (in person and online), and much more.

For more information and for any accommodation requests, please contact us at the following address: ccerbal@uOttawa.ca.  

Conference website: https://ccerbal2023.sciencesconf.org/?forward-action=index&forward-controller=index&lang=en