Applied Linguistics as a Meeting Place

2nd Combined Conference of the
Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA) and
Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand (ALANZ)

30 November – 2 December 2011

Posted Monday 21 November
ALAA-ALANZ program outline and keynote speakers & abstracts

In making your travel plans, please note that the conference starts on 30 November (9am) at the University of Canberra (UC) and finishes on 2 December (7pm) at The Australian National University (ANU). Pre-conference registration and a casual pre-conference get-together will be on 29 November 2011 at the ANU.

ALAA is calling for applications for travelling scholarships for the 2011 ALAA/ALANZ Conference to be held in Canberra. Please click here for more information.

The Applied Linguistics Associations of Australia (ALAA) and New Zealand (ALANZ) are hosting their second combined conference with the theme Applied Linguistics as a Meeting Place. The conference will focus on intersections between Applied Linguistics and other disciplines and areas of practice.

The conference will highlight Australia’s beautiful national capital as an intellectual, cultural, political and policy-development centre.

This conference is proudly hosted by the University of Canberra (UC) and The Australian National University (ANU). The first two days (30 Nov–1 Dec) will be at UC and the joint day with ALS will be at the ANU.

Plenary Speakers are:

Diana Eades (University of New England)
  • Biography
  • Conference plenary abstract

Janet Holmes (Victoria University, Wellington)
  • Biography
  • Conference plenary abstract

Andy Kirkpatrick (Griffith University)
  • Biography
  • Conference plenary abstract
 
Tim McNamara (University of Melbourne)
  • Biography
  • Conference plenary abstract

Merrill Swain (University of Toronto)
  • Biography
  • Conference plenary abstract

Conference strands are:

Special Events and Features:

The following special events and features are in planning:

Invited Panel "Bilingual Education: Where does it fit?" An expert panel will draw on their knowledge and experience of a range of billingual policies and programs to discuss where bilingual education fits within the school system, national and state language education policies, and the Australian Curriculum.

Invited Colloquium "Approaching Classroom Discourse as Social Interaction" Three panellists will demonstrate how an excerpt of everyday classroom interaction might be analysed from the perspectives of (respectively) interactional sociolinguistics, conversation analysis and critical discourse analysis. Discussion will consider pros and cons of each approach, its appropriateness to different research questions, and the possibility or difficulty of combining these approaches in discourse analytic research.

Invited Colloquium “Do you speak International English?” Panellists will consider the controversies around the notion of International English, the difficulties of defining this term and its boundaries, the circumstances surrounding the perceived need for this term, the English used by native speaker teachers overseas and NNS professionals in international business, and how Australian and overseas language policies address these issues – if at all.

Special Presentation The Educational Testing Service (ETS) will present a plaque to the 2010 winner of the TOEFL Young Outstanding Scholar Award, Dr Aek Phakiti, University of Sydney. This award recognizes an individual under the age of 40 whose scholarship or other major professional activities have made an outstanding contribution to the field of foreign or second language assessment.

Special Feature The ALAA-ALANZ-ALS Gamilaraay Language Workshop will provide an opportunity for a hands-on experience in learning a NSW Aboriginal language that is being rebuilt and in exporing possibilities for teaching it.

ALS Workshops on the Joint ALAA-ALANZ and ALS Day (2 Dec): Current Issues in Non-verbal Communication Research and Kids, Kriol(s) and Classrooms click here

The last ALAA-ALANZ event is planned in collaboration with ALS, and will be a public forum chaired by Damien Carrick (ABC Radio National Law Report) discussing the question 'Is it possible to receive justice in a language that's not your own?' The panellists will consist of three expert linguists (Diana Eades, Tim McNamara and Michael Cooke) and three high profile legal people discussing actual instances from the linguists' data. It will be recorded for broadcast on the Law Report at a later date. The forum will start at 5.30pm and run until approximately 7.00pm. It is shaping up to be an excellent end to the ALAA-ALANZ conference as well as an exciting event on the first day of the ALS conference.

For special events on Language and the Law, click here.

Hosted by the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand, Australian Linguistic Society
& Australian Society for French Studies
at The Australian National University & the University of Canberra
                 

with further support from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies