Full Title: In­ter­na­ti­o­nal Sym­po­si­um of Pro­ces­sa­bi­li­ty Ap­proa­ches to Lan­gua­ge Ac­qui­si­ti­on
Short Title: PA­LA

Date: 18-Sep-2025 - 19-Sep-2025
Location: Paderborn, Germany
Contact Person: Emilia Nottbeck
Meeting Email: [email protected]

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition; Psycholinguistics

Call Deadline: 15-Mar-2025

Meeting Description:

The 23rd International Symposium of Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition (PALA) will cover a wide range of topics relating to current research on Processability Theory and Second Language Acquisition including theoretical, empirical and applied issues.

Call for Papers:

We are delighted to announce that the 23rd International Symposium of Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition (PALA) 2025 will be held in face-to-face mode at the Paderborn University, Germany, on the 18th and19th of September, 2025. The symposium focuses on research and developments related to processability approaches to language acquisition, particularly second language acquisition and bilingualism/ multilingualism research.

We welcome submissions addressing theoretical concerns, empirical issues or practical applications on any topic related to Processability Theory (PT).

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
• Bilingual and multilingual acquisition (including both dominant and minority languages or varieties)
• Cross-linguistic comparisons
• Heritage languages and incomplete acquisition
• L1-L2-L3 similarities and differences
• The pragmatics/syntax-interface
• The role of PT in learning, teaching, testing and assessment
• The Processability Theory (PT) hierarchy in specific languages
• The semantics/syntax-interface
• The existence or non-existence of developmental stages
• Transfer
• A comparison of PT and other SLA approaches
• Developmental Language Disorder
• PT and dynamical systems theory

The language of the symposium is English.

Submission
• Abstracts for papers must be original and not previously published
• Each author may submit no more than one individual and one co-authored abstract
• All submissions will be reviewed anonymously and evaluated in terms of originality, clarity, significance of findings, possible applications and conclusions
• Submissions must include the following:
1. Title of the paper and abstract of 300 words (excluding references and title)
2. Full Name and affiliation of the author(s)
3. First author’s e-mail address
• Accepted papers will be allocated 25 minutes, consisting of 20 minutes for oral presentation and 5 minutes for questions and discussion.

Deadline for submission: 15 March 2025
Please submit your abstract to the following email address: [email protected]