Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA 2016)
Conference of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA 2016)
Languages for Life: Educational, Professional and Social Contexts
WU Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business)
July 19-22, 2016
General Information
WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) is calling for proposals for papers and posters for the conference ALA 2016. The submission deadline for both is 15 November 2015.
We welcome abstracts that address any aspects of research on language awareness. In accordance with the conference theme, submissions are encouraged to focus on the state of the art, on challenges and future avenues of research related to the following fields:
A. Language Awareness in Language Learning and Language Teaching
B. Language Awareness in the Workplace and Business
C. Language Awareness and Awareness of (New/Social) Media and Literacies
D. Language Awareness, Intercultural Awareness, Communication Awareness
E. Critical Language Awareness
F. Awareness and Attitudes concerning Languages and Varieties
For further inquiries you can contact us by email (ala2016@wu.ac.at).
Confirmed plenary speakers
Veronika Koller (Lancaster University)
Almut Köster (Vienna University of Economics and Business)
Aneta Pavlenko (Temple University)
Dennis Preston (Michigan State University)
Submission guidelines
Abstracts must be submitted at www.wu.ac.at/ala2016 and may not exceed 300 words (excluding references). Authors may submit a maximum of two abstracts if at least one of these is co-authored. The abstracts will be reviewed anonymously and notification of acceptance will be sent at the beginning of 2016. General registration will open in December 2015.
The language of the conference is predominantly English, but contributions in other languages will also be considered. In such cases, PowerPoints or other visual materials should be in English or bilingual. Please choose the language which best suits your needs as well as those of the audience. All abstracts must be submitted in English, even if this will not be the language of the presentation. The title should be provided in the original language with an English translation in brackets, if applicable.
Academic programme
The conference will consist of
– full paper presentations (20 minutes, 10 minutes Q&A)
– an invited colloquium: “ALA meets Verbal” (Austrian Association of Applied Linguistics)
– a poster slam / poster presentations (A0, portrait format)
– a workshop for PhD students / young scholars
Conference venue
ALA 2016 will be held at the WU, one of the major business universities of Europe (www.wu.ac.at/en). The new campus of the WU, completed in 2013, sets new standards with regard to the construction of universities (www.wu.ac.at/campus/architecture/en). It lies at the heart of Vienna and is easily accessible by public transport. The campus’ modern architecture and numerous convenient facilities make this an attractive area to explore, while the ‘Prater’-Park adjacent to the campus affords the opportunity to relax and unwind. Further information about the venue, travel arrangements and accommodation is available on our website: www.wu.ac.at/ala2016.
ALA membership
If you are not yet a member of the Association for Language Awareness (ALA), we strongly recommend that you join now. ALA members will be charged a lower conference fee and will receive the official journal Language Awareness (four issues per year).
More information with respect to membership can be found on ALA’s website: www.languageawareness.org.
Scholarships
PhD students and early career researchers are encouraged to send in abstracts as they may qualify for an ALA conference scholarship. More information will be made available in the second circular.
We hope to see you in Vienna!
The conference will be organised by members of the Department of Foreign Language Business Communication (Institutes for English, Romance and Slavic Languages):
Martin Stegu (Head of Committee)
Herbert Angermeyer
Angelika Hechtl
Susanne Kopf
Vera Carla Poschauko
Tom S. Rankin
Brigitte Seidler-Lunzer
Johanna Woydack
Congratulations!
Great news – the abstract submitted by Khwan (and me) has been accepted 🙂
Raising interculturally-oriented ELF awareness of EFL teachers in Thai universities
The establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in December 2015 removes/d the economic borders between the ten member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and emphasises/d the need for intercultural communication (IC) within and beyond the ASEAN region. Given a) the very large number of languages spoken in these countries (Indonesia alone has 700+ languages), b) the acknowledged utility of a widely-accepted lingua franca within the region, c) the official language status of English in the association, and d) the current global status of English, it is likely that much of the aforementioned IC within and beyond the ASEAN region will be conducted through English as a lingua franca (ELF). This has major implications for teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), but, as evident in our ongoing work for EFL teachers in Thai universities, the new ELF-EIC (English for Intercultural Communication) dimension is largely unfamiliar to practitioners. This paper outlines how we are working to raise their awareness of this dimension and what it might mean for their practice. The paper begins by exploring some of the ASEAN and Thai policy documents which articulate the overall ASEAN vision regarding intercultural communication as well as delineating the intercultural and English language skills needed by Thai graduates. We then present our understanding of this ELF-EIC dimension, linking it to worked examples showing how these teachers might become more aware of: i) the aspects of their existing materials and activities which resonate with the suggested approach; ii) how these aspects might be further strengthened; iii) the aspects supportive of the suggested re-orientation which seem to be absent currently; and iv) how they might design new materials, methods and activities to fill the gaps identified.