Past Editions - Szczyrk

2007-present archive: A backlog of ICFSLA first circulars going back to 2007 can be found here.

2023: Psychological perspectives on second/foreign language learning and teaching

Studying second language acquisition and learning and the implications it offers for language instruction have been evolving from researching more language-oriented themes within applied linguistics, such as for example language errors and transfer, the development of lexical or morphosyntactic competences of a learner/speaker to psycholinguistic perspectives in observing individual variability due to individual learner differences, among many other psychological factors significant for language learning processes to be successfully carried out. More recently, research on psychological dimensions has evolved around the issues of FL learner and teacher affectivity which goes well-beyond traditional studies of motivation or language anxiety, although they still seem to draw researchers’ attention. Constructs such as well-being and its constituent factors have come to the fore with many acknowledged scholars in SLA. We are hoping that multidisciplinarity and its inevitably complex perspective on SLA as applied to psychological dimensions in learning and teaching foreign languages will bring to the conference fruitful discussions leading to a new understanding, new ideas and inspiration for further research.

Plenary Speakers

Currently, we are happy to announce that the following scholars will present the keynote talks at the 33rd ICFSLA conference:

• Jean Marc Dewaele (Birkbeck College, London)

• Tammy Gregersen (America Univeristy of Sharjah)

• Peter MacIntyre (Cape Breton University)

• Sarah Mercer (University of Graz)

• Joanna Nijakowska ( University of Warsaw)

• Ema Ushioda (Warwick University)

2022: Modern technologies in foreign language teaching, learning and research

The presence of modern technologies is not a new theme, as both didactic context as well as research ideas have been informed by it for decades now so we are also interested in some of these more traditional approaches and contributions. However, the main idea behind the conference theme comes from our more recent experiences of functioning in the largely different environment of online teaching, learning and research. Thus, we thought that perhaps our annual conference during the post-pandemic time when life will be given back to us can become a forum for sharing the new ideas that have originated in this difficult period for us all. We would like to share these experiences and to demonstrate how we all manged to use modern technology to the best of the potential it offered but also to approach it critically understanding its dangers and inadequacies. We hope that this topic will attract a wide range of participants from different academic institutions around the world and that this shared reflection will enrich our perceptions of the way educational institutions function in their didactic and research roles now and in the future.

Plenary Speakers

Currently, we are happy to announce that the following scholars will present the keynote talks at the 33rd ICFSLA conference:

• Prof. Regine Hampel (Open University, UK)

• Prof. Simone Pfenninger (University of Salzburg, Salzburg)

• Prof. Arkadiusz Rojczyk (University of Silesia, Katowice)

• Prof. Maria Pilar Safont (Univeristat Jaume I, Castello de la Plana)

• Prof. David Singleton (Professor Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin)

2021: Narratives of Success and Failure: Stories from Foreign Language Teachers and Learners

The theme itself is self-explanatory, needing little further elaboration. We imagine that research interests relating to perceptions of what constitutes success and failure in a second/foreign language context from the perspective of a teacher and/or a learner (as well as the factors determining those) will constitute the major focus of the presentations. We would also like to emphasize the role of qualitative methods in SLA research, and especially the role of (personal) narratives as a tool not only of an expression of subjective perceptions and experiences but also of interesting in-depth analysis of the issues relating to FL success and failure in a diversity of educational and non-educational contexts. This entails including both foreign language teachers/learners in formal instruction settings and those functioning as immigrants in an L2 country. The emphasis on narratives does not imply that research of a quantitative nature will be of lesser interest during this conference. What is more, we would like to encourage discussion of mixed methods which employ both approaches, as we believe they are complementary to each other. We hope that such a broad topic, and (we assume) a vital one for not only our SLA research but also for teaching/learning experiences, will attract a wide group of participants from different educational institutions from around the world.

Plenary Speakers

We are pleased to announce that the following scholars have agreed to present keynote talks at the 32nd ICFSLA conference:

• Prof. Christine Gkonou (University of Essex, Colchester)

• Prof. Hanna Komorowska (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw)

• Prof. Agnieszka Otwinowska- Kasztelanic (Warsaw University, Warsaw)

• Prof. Simone Pfenninger (University of Salzburg, Salzburg)

• Prof. David Singleton (Professor Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin)

2020: Canceled

The ICFSLA's 2020 edition was canceled due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

2019: From code-switching to translanguaging

The term code-switching often used interchangeably with code-mixing and code alteration (though not exactly synonymously), has long been researched in SLA studies (for example Gumperz 1971, Myers-Scotton 1983,1987, Li 1988, Milroy & Muysken 1995, Muysken 2000). It caught the interest of both researchers in natural bilingualism and in classroom settings. The phenomenon has been discussed from various linguistic and non-linguistic perspectives, in which code-switching performs a variety of functions ranging from being a communication strategy to social exclusion (or inclusion). With the fast-growing interest and research in multilingualism and the increased mobility of people resulting in the creation of multilingual societies, code-switching has gained a new dimension as translanguaging. This change results from taking a different perspective on mixing languages in one´s performance and communication acts, where translanguaging is not longer seen (as it often was) as an unwanted phenomenon, but rather as a didactic and communication tool used consciously and purposefully. In other words, it is frequently seen by its proponents as a pedagogic strategy (Wiley & Garcia 2017, Cenoz 2017, Blackledge, Creese & Hu 2016). This view is however regarded as controversial by some scholars. Thus, we would like to create a forum of discussion for the above issues, welcoming both proponents and critics of such an approach.

The proposed discussion offers a wide range of possible specific topics. On the one hand, the presentations can take a traditional perspective discussing code-switching in a FL classroom as observed in teacher procedures and learner performance, as well as beyond the classroom and in the naturalistic setting of coexistence of different nationalities. The presentations can also redefine code-switching as translanguaging and demonstrate how this phenomenon of peaceful coexistence of different languages can lead to better academic achievement in the case of formal language instruction and better communication and identity preservation in the case of a naturalistic context of communication.

As many of our regular Szczyrk conference participants are interested in issues of multilingualism, and work within multilingual educational settings, we also welcome proposals related with multilingualism research. In addition to the main conference theme, we also accept selected proposals in other areas of SLA research of interest to our conference participants for our varia sessions. Following the success of the last year, poster presentations of Ph.D. projects will be continued, instead of our regular Ph.D. workshop. Interested prospective candidates are asked to prepare a poster of their projects and share them with other conference participants and, more importantly, with academic supervisors in order to receive constructive feedback. We will also continue with an academic publishers´ session, from which less experienced young scholars can get information, advice and guidance on how to prepare their work for publication in an academic journal. This will be conducted in a question-and-answer format.

Plenary Speakers

We are pleased to announce that the following scholars, whose research concerns itself with identity issues (among others), have agreed to give plenary talks at our conference:

Prof. Adrian Blackledge (University of Birmingham)

Prof. Angela Creese (University of Birmingham)

Prof. David Lasagabaster (The University of Basque Country)

Prof. Simone Pfeninnger (University of Salzburg)

Prof. David Singleton (University of Pannonia, Vészprem/Trinity College, Dublin)

Prof. Eva Vetter (University of Vienna)

2018: “We know who we are, but not who we may be”: Identity in second language acquisition and foreign language learning

With traditionally very strong emphasis on cognitive aspects of language acquisition and learning, and more recently the significance of socio-affective factors and environmental issues, modern day research in SLA has inevitably become a multidisciplinary domain. It is a field of applied science which targets bi- and multilingual communities as well as individuals and their need to accommodate in diverse language contexts. The latter raises issues of identity extensively studied by psychology, philosophy and neuroscience and understood as one’s relationship to the world, others and ourselves over time and space. In the context of SLA, individual identity is seen as constructed and negotiated in language acquisition and learning situations (Pavlenko 2002: 286), but also in various contexts in which we speak different languages interacting with different people for different purposes and in different roles, when the experience of another language opens new doors for us to see different worlds. In our taking up of this theme we would like to debate how individual languages: L1, L2, Ln build our identities, how they enrich or challenge who we are by birth and how they affect the way we function as language users/learners and teachers. We welcome presentations and discussions on the different ways language identity can be conceptualised in SLA and also in the teaching of foreign languages. Topics on language identity can relate to external and internal factors determining our language identity in relation to other people (other learners, teachers, speakers of a given language) and different situations and contexts, but they may also focus on individual features such as anxiety, self-efficacy, emotionality or the self.

In addition to the main conference theme, we also accept selected proposals in other areas of SLA research of interest to our conference participants.

All those wishing to contribute papers, or just wanting to attend presentations and workshops, are invited to participate in the conference.

Following the success of the last year´s poster presentations of Ph.D. projects, we would like to continue with this form, instead of our regular Ph.D. workshop. Interested prospective candidates are asked to prepare a poster of their projects and share them with other conference participants and, more importantly, with academic supervisors in order to receive a response and some constructive feedback.

We will also continue with an academic publishers´ session, from which less experienced young scholars can get information, advice and guidance on how to prepare

texts for publication in an academic journal. It will be conduct in a question-and-answer format.

Plenary Speakers

We are pleased to announce that the following scholars, whose research revolves around identity issues (among others) have agreed to give plenary talks at our conference:

• Prof. Larissa Aronin (Oranim Academic College)

• Prof. Hanna Komorowska (University of Social Sciences and

Humanities/University of Warsaw, Warsaw)

• Prof. Sarah Mercer (University of Graz)

• Prof. Simone Pfenninger (University of Salzburg)

• Prof. David Singleton (University of Pannonia, Vészprem/Trinity College, Dublin)

2017: The impact of learning environments on second language acquisition and foreign language learning

The choice of the topic was determined by the significance of learning environment(s) in relation to language acquisition/learning processes. We aim to raise our awareness as teachers, mentors and learners of the complexity of this issue. We would like to look at the conditions necessary to build environments that would support both the learning and growth of language users/learners in the context of instructed as well as uninstructed language development. Proposals for presentations can embrace both cognitive and affective aspects of building such an environment - at school but also beyond – in the community and within a family. We are also anticipating papers researching barriers in the learning environment(s) that impede the process of language development such as expectations, resources, assessment or culture, to name just a few. It would also be interesting to open up a discussion on educational policies responsible for creating schools which respond well to their learners by offering both a friendly and propitious environment for learner growth. As many of our regular Szczyrk conference participants research multilingualism and work within multilingual educational settings, as usual we welcome proposals related with multilingualism research in a separate session(s). We also welcome and accept selected proposals in other areas of SLA research in addition to the main conference theme.

All those wishing to contribute papers, or just wanting to attend presentations and workshops, are invited to participate in the conference.

This year, instead of our regular Ph.D. workshop, we would like to introduce a new form of presentation for Ph.D. students. Interested prospective candidates are asked to prepare a poster of their projects and share them with the other conference participants and, more importantly, with academic supervisors in order to receive a response and some constructive feedback.

Plenary Speakers

We are pleased to announce that the following scholars have agreed to give plenary talks at our conference:

• Prof. Jasone Cenoz (University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian/Donostia)

• Prof. Gessica De Angelis (Trinity College, Dublin)

• Prof. Durk Gorter (University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian/Donostia)

• Prof. Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel (Opole University)

• Prof. Simone Pfenninger (University of Salzburg)

• Prof. David Singleton (University of Pannonia, Vészprem/Trinity College, Dublin)