Full Title: Multilingualism and Minority Languages in a Global Context – 10th Conference of the International Consortium “Multilingualism as a Chance”

Date: 21-May-2025 - 23-May-2025
Location: Davos, Switzerland
Contact Person: Lilian Ladner
Meeting Email: [email protected]
Web Site: https://phgr.ch/veranstaltungen/tagung-minderheitensprachen

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition; Language Documentation; Sociolinguistics

Call Deadline: 20-Sep-2024

Meeting Description:

The conference on “Multilingualism and minority languages in a global context” will take place in Davos, Grisons (Switzerland) from 21–23 May 2025. The conference is organised by the University of Teacher Education of the Grisons (PHGR) in cooperation with the University of Teacher Education Lucerne (PHLU) under the patronage of the international consortium “Multilingualism as a Chance”. Partner organisations include the Department of Education and Learning/University of Teacher Education (SUPSI/DFA, Ticino) and the University of Teacher Education Valais (HEPV-S).

The following link leads to the conference website in German, English, Italian, French and Romansh: https://phgr.ch/veranstaltungen/tagung-minderheitensprachen. Here you will find all the information about the conference.

The conference aims to provide a platform for exploring and understanding the multiple dimensions of multilingualism, translanguaging and linguistic minorities, sign languages and indigenous languages in a global context.

Submissions (presentations, workshops, posters, audiovisual works/art performances) can be sent via Conftool by 20 September 2024.

Registration for the conference is also via Conftool and is possible between 2 July 2024 and 30 April 2025.

The Universities of Teacher Education of The Grisons and Lucerne, the international consortium “Multilingualism as a Chance”, the Department of Education and Learning/University of Teacher Education (SUPSI/DFA, Ticino) and the University of Teacher Education Valais (HEPV-S) look forward to a lively participation.

2nd Call for Papers:

The Universities of Teacher Education of the Grisons, Lucerne, Valais and Ticino (Switzerland) and the consortium “Multilingualism as a Chance” invite proposals for a three-day international conference titled “Multilingualism and Minority Languages in a Global Context” to be held on 21–23 May 2025 in Davos, Switzerland.

This conference aims to provide a platform for exploring and understanding the multifaceted dimensions of multilingualism, translanguaging and linguistic minorities in a global context. In the era of post-multilingualism (Li, 2018), the notion of translanguaging (García, 2009; García & Li, 2014) offers a critical perspective for engaging with languages and their speakers. Focusing on minority languages in a global context (Cenoz & Gorter, 2024), the conference addresses social inequalities beyond the “celebratory discourse on multilingualism” (Duchêne, 2020, p. 96) to draw attention to the value of lesser-spoken languages, Indigenous languages and sign languages (Hou & Kusters, 2023). In line with this, the conference challenges modern language learning and teaching in search of more socially responsible language education. In addition, the conference aims to shed light on the impact of digital transformation and, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI), on the promotion of multilingualism (Schneider, 2022).

Scholars, researchers, educators and practitioners are invited to present their research focusing on, but not limited to, the following main thematic areas:
Linguistic and sociolinguistic features of linguistic minorities
• linguistic minorities
• language policy and language planning
• sign languages
• Indigenous and endangered languages
• minority languages in the linguistic landscape
• language attitudes and beliefs
• language contact phenomena at the lexical, phonological and morpho-syntactical level
• new speakers
• linguistic minorities and AI

Learning and teaching a minority language
• language revitalisation efforts in language education
• translanguaging in the classroom
• socially responsible language education
• linguistic minorities in educational settings
• Indigenous and endangered languages in education
• concepts and pedagogical models of multilingualism
• linguistic inequalities in education
• learning and teaching of minority languages using digital technologies
• linguistic citizenship

Multilingualism in border regions
• characteristics of multilingualism in border regions
• dominant language constellations (DLC)
• peripherality of languages in border regions
• borderlands as physical and imagined linguistic spaces
• fixed and fluid linguistic borders
• promotion of linguistic and cultural minorities in border regions
• sociocultural dynamics of languages in border regions
• language contact, language shift and language maintenance
• multilingualism and AI in border regions

Confirmed keynote speakers:
• Evangelia Adamou, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France
• Bernard Cathomas, Switzerland
• Dominique Caglia, University of Teacher Education of the Grisons & University of Fribourg, Switzerland
• Alexandre Duchêne, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
• Kijan Espahangizi, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• Ofélia García, City University of New York, USA
• David Kroik, Umeå University, Sweden
• Annelies Kusters, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

Submission of abstracts
Proposals are invited for papers (20 minutes presentation and 10 minutes discussion), workshops (short presentation and an interactive part with the audience, 45 minutes), posters (10 minutes) and audiovisual work or art presentation (max. 30 minutes). Abstracts may be written in English, German, French, Italian or Romansh. The text should be anonymous and not exceed 300 words (excluding references). Authors are limited to one individual and one joint abstract.

If you have any questions, contact:
Lilian Ladner,
[email protected]