Multilingualism and Multilingual Education

The laboratory of Values, Society and Development (LVSD) (research groups: Language and

Culture; Language Contact and Language Policy) organizes its First International Conference

on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education on May, 9-10, 2018, at the Center of Letters

and Human Sciences, Ait Melloul University Campus (Ibn Zohr University, Agadir,

Morocco).

Over the past decades, research has focused on both individual and societal multilingualism.

A great number of people are multilingual and use more than two languages in their everyday

life. These languages differ in statuses as majority/minority languages both in their

community and internationally; some of the languages are used primarily in the private

domain while others are used primarily in public domains, such as work or school. Hence,

multilingualism is not exceptional but more frequent than might be commonly thought.

Individual and societal multilingualism are strongly interrelated and characterized by the

occurrence of certain issues such as how sociocultural parameters determine the choice of

language, persistent language conflicts, concepts of identity, and symbolic struggles over

religious, ethnic, cultural or national identity. These issues occur strongly in the educational

systems and institutions of the multilingual communities.

Multilingual education refers to educational programs that use languages other than the first

languages as media of instruction or teach additional languages as school subjects aiming at

developing communicative proficiency in more than two languages. In order to attain this

aim, these programs have to utilize complex educational planning to accommodate multiple

language aims, curricular materials and teaching strategies. This aim can be challenging given

that multilingual education is linked to the sociolinguistic context in which it takes place and

has to take into consideration the status and use of the languages involved.

This conference aims to bring together academic scientists and researchers to exchange and

share their experiences and research results on all aspects of multilingual education. It aims

also at providing an interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to

present a discussion of the most recent innovations, trends and concerns as well as practical

challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the field of multilingual education.

We welcome papers on a wide range of topics including but not limited to:

1- Theoretical approaches to multilingualism.

2- Language policy and language management in educational domains.

3- Pedagogical implications of multilingualism.

4- Multilingualism and language contact processes: code switching, borrowing…etc.

5- Multilingualism and language attitudes.

6- Multilingualism, multiculturalism and identity.

7- Psycholinguistic studies of multilingualism.

8- Child multilingual language development.

9- Multiple language acquisition and learning.

10- Multilingualism and translation.

11- Multilingualism, literature and cultural studies.

12- Literacy in multilingual education.

13- Intercultural and globalization issues related to multilingualism.

Important Dates

- Participants are invited to submit abstracts of their presentations (no more than 300 words)

and a short bio by January15, 2018. The scientific committee will announce decisions and

notify the panelists by January 30, 2018.

- Full versions of the articles should be submitted by March 1, 2018.

- Participants will be notified of the status of their full text submissions by March 30, 2018.

Registration Fees

Registration fees

- Faculty members and researchers: 1000 MAD (100USD)

- Students: 500 MAD (50USD)