Join us for an interactive symposium of language researchers, educators and users, to celebrate the launch of the CLER Distinguished Scholar in Residence Programme. The keynote lecture by Professor Lourdes Ortega will be followed by a series of creative multimodal reflections and conversations of CLER members and friends, as we reflect on future directions in ethical language education research.

Refreshments and lunch will be provided. Please let us know of any dietary requirements when registering.

Programme

8.30-9.30 Registration and morning coffee

9.30-10.00 Introduction: Maggie Kubanyiova, Director of CLER

10.00-11.30 Distinguished Scholar in Residence Lecture by Lourdes Ortega: Doing Language Education Research, Engaging with Ethics and Social Justice

The humanistic values that traditionally justified world language education are in crisis, the dominance of English seems unstoppable, and according to the United Nations (2017) 3.4 per cent of the world’s population (approximately 258 million people) live in a country other than their original one, many of them leading multilingual lives by force as much as by choice. It is clear that these global developments greatly affect the lives of language learners. But how do they affect the lives of language teachers? And how should research into doing language education respond? In this talk, l explore ethical minefields that arise when an orientation towards social justice is embraced while investigating language education. I will reflect on resonances and differences in doing language education across diverse contexts. My goal is to open up innovative research lenses that might improve researchers’ ability to illuminate language education at different nested levels – societies and institutions, schools and classrooms, communities and families, minds and brains – while never losing sight of today’s material, ideological, and geopolitical inequities.

Discussants: Cecile de Cat (Language, Cultures and Societies, Leeds), Ruth Swanwick (Education, Leeds) & Julia Snell (English, Leeds)

CLER Chairs: Richard Badger and Mohammad Ahmadian

11.30-12.00 Refreshment break

12.00-13.30 ‘A Day in the Life of…’ Short data-based multi-modal contributions on who learns, teaches and uses language(s) and to what ends

Speakers include: Alice Deignan (CLER); Jody Bradford (Language Centre); James Simpson (CLER); Diane Nelson & Janet Watson (Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems); Lucy Taylor (CLER); Elisabetta Adami (Languages, Cultures and Society); Louise Dearden (CLER); Postgraduate Taught Students (CLER)

Discussants: Martin Lamb (CLER), Judith Hanks (CLER) & Lourdes Ortega (Georgetown University)

CLER Chairs: Huahui Zhao & Gary Chambers

13.30-14.30 Lunch break

14.30-16.30 CLER Creative Conversation: Researching Language Education

Speakers include: Annamaria Pinter (Warwick) on Researching Inclusively (with Children); Jane Andrews (UWE, Bristol) on Researching Multilingually; Jessica Bradley (Sheffield) on Researching Multimodally

CLER Chairs: Simon Green, Taguhi Sahakyan & Diana Mazgutova

16.30-17.00 CLOSING followed by evening reception

Towards an Ethical Vision for Language Education Research