SSEES 100: Conference on the Politics of Teaching and Learning Languages

This two-day conference intends to address the historical perspectives and current key narratives surrounding the teaching of languages, linguistics, and area studies.

Its aim is to explore language education in the context of an ever changing and dynamic societal, political, and cultural landscape globally, and in the UK-context.

The programme includes key-note addresses by Nicholas Ostler (Foundation for Endangered Languages), Anne Pauwels (SOAS), and Nigel Vincent FBA (University of Manchester).

The significance of the title ‘The Politics of Teaching and Learning Languages’ is twofold: first, it alludes to politics and foreign languages in education, and second, to the politics of teaching and learning languages.

The first of these approaches focuses on political and historical developments that influence tendencies, and shape policy, in the area of foreign language learning and education. The second approach centres on the ideologically-governed attitudes that underlie language professionals’, teachers’, and textbook writers’ decisions when choosing a particular variety of a language, a particular methodological approach and resources in their teaching, writing, and syllabus-design practice.

Programme Details

• Draft Programme (word document)
• Abstracts (word document)
• Draft Panels (word document)

Find us on the BAAL Sociolinguistic Events Calendar

Organising committee

• Jelena Čalić, UCL SSEES
• Eszter Tarsoly, UCL SSEES
• Urszula Chowaniec, UCL SSEES
• Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi, UCL SSEES, Uppsala University

The organising committee plan to publish selected papers in a Conference Proceedings volume.