Full Title: CIDL25 Workshop: Integrating L1 Skills – What, How and Why?
Short Title: CIDL25

Date: 21-Nov-2025 - 22-Nov-2025
Location: Bucharest, Romania
Contact Person: Monica Vasileanu
Meeting Email: [email protected]
Web Site: https://litere.ro/cidl-en/

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics

Call Deadline: 25-Sep-2025

2nd Call for Papers:

We invite submissions to a workshop on integrating skills in teaching and learning L1 to be held within the 25th International Conference of the Department of Linguistics of the Faculty of Letters.

Date: November 21-22, 2025
Venue: University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters, 5-7 Edgar Quinet St., Bucharest, Romania
Format: in-person
Languages of the workshop: English and Romanian
Keynote speaker: Professor Emeritus Debra Myhill (University of Exeter, UK)
Convenors: Florentina Sâmihăian, Andrea Ghiță
Registration fee: 300 RON (60 €); 150 RON (30 €) for PhD students, middle and high school teachers

Workshop Overview:

The comprehensive frameworks for education in the 21th century (Fadel, 2015, Key-Competences for Lifelong Learning, 2018), and the national recommendations regarding the finalities of different school cycles (The Graduate’s Training Profile, 2023) are documents that call for a discussion and reflection on the integration of competences across subjects. Moreover, the concepts of literacy and multiliteracy have triggered a new vision and configuration of many L1 curricula, for example, in middle school, the curriculum includes several areas of study such as language, reading, oral communication, writing, and interculturality (The Curriculum for Romanian Language and Literature for Lower Secondary, 2017). Under these circumstances, teachers understand that they need to find bridges both across subjects and across the areas of L1 to achieve common goals.

In this context, integrating the specific skills of such a complex subject as L1 is a challenge for both teachers and researchers. The L1 didactics usually treat each area of study separately, emphasizing the specificity of the approaches for language, for writing, for reading etc., and much less the way in which the acquisitions in one domain can be used to strengthen performance in the other domains.

In Romanian schools, grammar is traditionally taught and learned mostly per se, although the current curriculum is oriented towards an integrated and functional approach. Reading or writing are tackled without capitalizing on the language knowledge that can open up to a deeper understanding of the text or to an improvement of students’ writing skills. Curriculum designers and researchers are trying to find solutions for changing the state of the art. We present below examples that can frame or inspire the presentations and discussions in our workshop.

Taking on Halliday’s view on language as a meaning-making system through which we shape and interpret our world and ourselves, the Australian curriculum is an example of an innovative vision in which the study of language is linked to oral and written communication; to how language shapes identities; to the worlds of literature, science, mathematics, and other subjects (Derewianka & Jones, 2010). The understanding of how language works can enable students to make informed choices in their efforts to read and write, learning to critically respond to texts and compose texts (Derewianka & Jones, 2023).

As some researchers point out, there is a need for even re-conceptualizing some aspects in grammar teaching that may underlie the difficulties in linking grammar knowledge and knowledge on language use; a need to re-examine the status of some grammatical objects and the efficient pedagogical approaches they require (Fontich et alii, 2020, Bulea-Bronckart, J-P, 2020).

The interaction between grammar and text is particularly explored in a program conducted in French-speaking Switzerland, called Principles of a fundamental didactics of grammar. The program has adopted an integrative approach to language teaching based on the series of principles, among which: language teaching must aim at both the development of textual production and comprehension capacities, and the construction of systemic knowledge; language pedagogy thus focuses on the interaction be-tween grammatical objects and textual objects (Bulea-Bronckart, E. 2020).

Myhill’s work (2018, 2021) can also fertilize more answers and solutions to the above-mentioned needs and challenges. An inventory of the formulas with which the model is often presented - grammar as choice, grammar in context, grammar as meaning-making resource, grammar with a purpose, contextualized grammar, re-imagined/re-positioned grammar, making meaning with grammar - can speak for itself about the functional vision (Halliday & Matthiessen 2004) to which the model asserts to belong in language didactics. A series of insights particularize this model: the model manages to put grammar in a central position, but without its formal, arid teaching in the form of "lessons"; the model condemns the reduction of grammar to terminological identification and labelling ("closed knowledge"); the model promotes the idea of conceptualizing language through a dialogical pedagogy (dialogic teaching, metatalk) that relies on the conscious conversion of grammar into writing and personal expression practices; the model understands the study of grammar based exclusively on authentic texts examined and then emulated, imitated creatively by the students.

Beyond the diverse models, solutions and searches to integrate L1 skills, L1 education is also challenged by globalization (mobility and immigration) and digitalization, requiring new strategies of dealing with language so that students acquire digital literacy skills and awareness of language diversity (Bax et alii, 2024).
Target Audience: This workshop is aimed at university-level instructors, pre-university teachers, linguists, students (Bachelor, Masters and PhD) and researchers interested in innovative approaches to teaching L1.

Topics of Interest may include, but need not be limited to:
- Integrating language acquisitions in writing, reading & viewing, and oral communication activities
- Integrating prescriptive (rule-focused) and descriptive (use-focused) approaches
- Integrating language awareness and reflection in teaching and learning interculturality
- Challenges for integrating L1 skills in a digital era
- Grammatical concepts that can be redefined in an integrated view of L1 skills

We invite submissions for:
1. Paper presentation (30 minutes, including 10 minutes of discussions).
Paper presentation proposals should include:
- an abstract, max. 300 words excl. references (font size 12, spacing 1.5, page margins 2.5 cm).
2. Poster presentation

Poster proposals should include:
- an abstract, max. 150 words excl. references (font size 12, spacing 1.5, page margins 2.5 cm)

All proposals should include contact details (name, affiliation, contact information) and a brief biography (c. 50 words) for each speaker.
Abstracts should be sent to [email protected].

Deadline for submissions: 25 September 2025 (extended deadline)
Notification of acceptance: 10 October 2025

References:
Bax, S., Kroon, S., & Spotti, M. (2024). Afterword. L1 Education between von Humboldt and Chat GPT. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 24, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.21248/l1esll.2024.24.2.749.
Boivin, M.C., Fontich, X., Funke, R., García-Folgado, M.-J., & Myhill, D. (2018). Working on grammar at school in L1 education: Empirical research across linguistic regions. Introduction to the special issue. Special issue Working on grammar at school in L1 education: Empirical research across linguistic regions. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 18, 1-6.
Bulea Bronckart, E. (2020). Reflections on teaching devices articulating grammar and text. L1- Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 20, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL- 2020.20.03.06.
Bulea-Bronckart, J.-P. (2020). Forword. In A. Camps & X. Fontich (ed.), Research and teaching at the intersection: Navigating the territory of grammar and writing in the context of metalinguistic activity (pp. 25-28). Brussels, Belgium: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b17237.
Derewianka B., Jones P. (2010). From traditional to grammar to functional grammar: Bridging the divide. Special Issue of NALDIC Quarterly: 6–15.
Derewianka B., Jones P. (2023). Teaching Language in Context (3rd ed), Oxford.
European Commission: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Key competences for lifelong learning, Publications Office, 2019, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/569540.
Fadel, C., Bialik, M., & Trilling, B. (2015). Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed. Center for Curriculum Redesign. https://curriculumredesign.org/our-work/four-dimensional-21st-century-education-learning-competencies-future-2030/.
Fontich, X., Van Rijt, J., & Gauvin, I. (2020). Intro to the Special Issue Research on L1 grammar in schooling: Mediation at the heart of learning grammar. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 20, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL-2020.20.03.01.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. (3rd ed) (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London. Arnold.
Myhill, D.A., Jones S.M. (2007). More than just Error Correction: Children’s Reflections on their Revision Processes. Written Communication, 24(4), 323-343.
Myhill, D.A., Jones S. M., Lines H.E., & Watson, A. (2011). Explaining how Language Works: is there a place for terminology? Literacy Today, 67, 25-27.
Myhill D.A., Jones S.M., Lines H., Watson A. (2012). Re-thinking grammar: The impact of embedded grammar teaching on students’ writing and students’ metalinguistic understanding. Research Papers in Education 27: 1–28.
Myhill D.A, Jones S., Watson A. (2013). Grammar matters: How teachers’ grammatical subject knowledge impacts on the teaching of writing. Teaching and Teacher Education 36: 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2013.07.0052.
Myhill, D. (2018). Grammar as a meaning-making resource for language development. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 18(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL-2018.18.04.04.
Myhill, D. (2021). Grammar re-imagined: foregrounding understanding of language choice in writing. English in Education, 55(3), 265–278. https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2021.1885975.
Myhill, D., Cremin, T., & Oliver, L. (2023). Writing as a craft: Re-considering teacher subject content knowledge for teaching writing. Research Papers in Education 38(3), 403-425.
Profilul de formare a absolventului, Ministerul Educației, noiembrie 2023, https://rocnee.eu/images/rocnee/fisiere/curriculum/profilul_absolventului/OM_6731_28.11.2023_MOF_Partea_I_nr._1099.pdf.
Programa școlară pentru disciplina Limba și literatura română, clasele a V-a – a VIII-a, 2017, https://www.ise.ro/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Limba-si-literatura-romana.pdf.