LINGUIST List 11.204

Tue Feb 1 2000

Calls: The "Nature of Language", Applied Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Rebecca Wheeler, What every educated person should know about language and why?
2. Isabelle LEGLISE, AFLA2000 2nd call for papers

TOPIC: WHAT EVERY EDUCATED PERSON SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LANGUAGE, AND WHY?

CONTEXT: Information/abstract gathering query from the LSA Undergraduate
Program Advisory Committee which is proposing this topic as a symposium
for the 2001 Annual Meeting.

BACKGROUND: Despite the results of more than half a century of
paradigm-changing work, the American public remains fundamentally
uninformed about the nature of language. Linguistics, the field which has
contributed the most to what we know, has reached a somewhat limited
audience through graduate programs, undergraduate majors and Introductions
to Language and Linguistics. And yet, despite this linguistic presence at
both the undergraduate and the graduate levels, the insights from
linguistics regarding the nature of language barely make the light of
pedagogical day when it comes to reaching not only students and teachers
in the public schools, but also the broader American public. 

If public misconceptions about the nature of language as evidenced in the
Oakland Ebonics furor or in ongoing public machinations about "proper
grammar" and "slovenly grammar" are any indication, our efforts at the
undergraduate and graduate levels aren't getting the word out. While
authors such as Pinker, Tannen, McWhorter, Smitherman, Trudgill, and
Wardhaugh write compellingly and comprehensibly for a broader lay audience
(not to mention Baugh, Fillmore, Labov, Nunberg, Rickford, Shuy, Wolfram,
etc., who connect to the press) surely, we linguists need to recraft and
perhaps reconceive our message so to get our insights out more broadly.

QUERY, CALL: In this context, I am calling for response to the question,
"what should every educated person know about language and why." That is,
what are the ***core insights of our field regarding the nature of
language***, insights which capture the fundaments of language? Will these
insights help unbind the dogged misconceptions that beleaguer our students
and populace when it comes to language?

IMMEDIATE PURPOSE: My purpose is to assemble a panel of discussants on
this topic under the aegis of the LSA's Undergraduate Program Advisory
Committee for next year's annual meeting.

LONG-TERM PURPOSE/APPLICATION: Such insights would ultimately coalesce
into educational materials (courses and workshops), adaptable to all
levels of education -- primary, secondary, high school, college, and
graduate teacher education. These educational materials might or might not
be distinct in content from current college level offerings in Language
Awareness and Introductions to Language. The point is to rethink and hone
what fundamentals about language we want to put out into the broader
world.

DEADLINE: Please submit your descriptions/abstracts/comments in email
form (length no longer than 1000 words) and in hard copy, to me by
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2000. Hard copy address is 

Rebecca S. Wheeler
Assistant Professor
Department of English
1 University Place
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA 23606-2998
(rwheelercnu.edu)


Thank you! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.



Rebecca Wheeler

AFLA 2000 / Second Call for Papers

The French Association for Applied Linguistics (AFLA) will be organising
its 3rd International Congress on Applied Linguistics from the 6th to the
12th July 2000.
This event will take place in Paris on the Jussieu campus.

The Congress will consist of two parts:
1 - A scientific conference, from Thursday 6th July in the morning to the
beginning of the afternoon of Saturday 8th July.
2 - A summer school, from Monday 10th July in the morning to the beginning
of the afternoon of Wednesday 12th July.

THE SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE

This will be centred on two themes:
a - the automatic processing of language seen not from the strictly
technical aspect but as the drive behind new methodologies and tendencies
of research. Various fields with linguistic applications will be covered,
such as corpus linguistics or teaching applications.

b - language dysfunctions and learning difficulties of language and
languages.

The two themes will be covered in parallel. The conference will consist of:
- plenary sessions given by recognised specialists
- 30 oral communications (30 minutes + 10 minutes for questions) which will
be selected by an international scientific committee composed of:

Anne Abeille (Talana, Universite Paris 7)
Christian Boitet (GRETA, Grenoble)
Lou Burnard (Oxford University, UK)
Laurence Danlos (Talana, Universite Paris 7)
Christian Delcourt (Universite de Liege, Belgium)
Thierry Fontenelle (Luxembourg, EURALEX)
Franz Guenthner (CIS, Munich, Germany)
Christian Jacquemin (LIMSI-CNRS)
Jean-Luc Nespoulous (Laboratoire Jacques-Lordat, Universit� Toulouse-Le
Mirail)
Colette Noyau (Universite Paris 10)
Maria Teresa Rijo da Fonseca Lino (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Suzanne Schlyter (Lund University, Sweden)
Bernd Spillner (Duisburg university, Germany, German Assn. for Applied
Linguistics)
Ross Steele (Sydney University, ,Australian Assn. for Applied Linguistics)
Philippe Thoiron (CRTT, Universite Lumi�re-Lyon 2)
Jacqueline Vaissiere (ILPGA, Universite Paris 3)
Dieter Wolff (Wuppertal University, Germany, German Assn. for Applied
Linguistics)

The CALL FOR PAPERS on subjects related to the two above themes has been
extended. Deadline for proposals: 29th February 2000
One page abstracts are requested . The interline must be set to 1.5,
Times 10 character size.
The title, name(s) of author(s), the institutional address of the first
author and his/her e-mail address should be included on a separate sheet.

Proposals must be sent to :
AFLA
Tour Centrale, 9eme etage / Case 7003
2, place Jussieu
75251 Paris CEDEX 05.

E-mail address : afla2000linguist.jussieu.fr (submissions by e-mail are
encouraged)

website: http://afla.linguist.jussieu.fr

Organising Committee :
Helene Huot, Pierre Arnaud, Geoffrey Williams, Marie-Eve Perrot, Oderic
Delefosse, Jeannette Ambrose, Isabelle Leglise, Emmanuelle Canut, Marianne
Desmets, Cecile Vigouroux