Diversity and social justice in language learning, teaching and research: bringing theory and practice together

About the conference

Decolonising the curriculum in Languages has recently attracted the attention of a large number of academics, in line with Higher Education Institutions’ agendas on Internationalisation, Diversity and Inclusion. In the past few years, several initiatives have facilitated fruitful discussions on the topic (IMLR symposium, September 2020; AULC Special Interest Group, among others), and, in a recent report, decolonising the curriculum is highlighted as one of the innovative languages pedagogies with the potential of having a high impact on languages education long term (Phips, 2021).

The aim of this conference is to progress these ideas further by collectively reflecting on the relationship between language learning and teaching, inclusion, and social justice, from a multifaceted view: How are grammatically discriminatory languages taught? How can technology support accessibility in language learning? How can Raciolinguistics inform the development of a more inclusive curriculum? What is the impact of ideology in materials development for language learning and teaching? Innovative work that analyses and aims at dealing with these key issues is being conducted mainly on a theoretical level at present, thus it is the focus of the conference to explore how all these ideas can be actively implemented in the languages classroom, building bridges between theoretical perspectives and practical approaches to this emerging research and scholarship area.

Organising committee

Conference convenors

Professor Rosina Márquez-Reiter, Head of the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (The Open University)

Dr Mara Fuertes Gutiérrez, Head of Spanish at the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (The Open University

Collaborators

Dr Ben Evans, Research Associate at the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (The Open University)

Plenary speakers

Professor Walter Mignolo (Director of the Center of Global Studies and the Humanities, Duke University), world leading expert in Decolonisation and Education.

Prof Juan Eduardo Bonnin (Discourse Analysis Professor, CONICET-UNSAM), expert in the role of language in the access to human rights.

Dr Laura Villa Galán (Tomás y Valiente Researcher, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), expert in the intersection of language and politics.

Programme

The Conference Programme is now available for download. Although we cannot foresee any major changes, small adjustments might be needed, so please check the link again a few days before the conference.

Call for papers

Proposals for a 20-minute presentation from a wide variety of interdisciplinary and theoretical perspectives are welcomed in the form of research-related papers, presentations of case studies, projects, and practical experiences. Proposals on, but not limited to, the following areas related to the conference theme, are encouraged:

• Ideologies in Language Education
• Inclusivity and accessibility in language learning and teaching
• Social justice in language learning and teaching
• Raciolinguistics
• Decolonisation of Languages Curriculum
• Critical Pedagogy and language learning and Teaching
• Language Teaching in Multilingual Contexts
• Languages, Digital Decolonisation and Inclusion

Key dates

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 April 2022 - Deadline now extended to Saturday 30 April 2022
• Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: Sunday 15 May 2022
• Deadline to send the supporting materials through: 1 July 2022
• Conference Dates: 14-15 July 2022

Please send your proposals by email to the organising team (lal-conference2022@open.ac.uk).

This conference is organised with the support of the Institute of Modern Languages Research.