[EDLING:1721] CFP: Social and Cognitive Aspects of Second Language Learning and Teaching

[Francis M Hult]

Social and Cognitive Aspects of Second Language Learning and Teaching

The University of Auckland, April 12th - April 14th 2007


http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/sites/index.cfm?P=9103


Guest speakers:

Patricia Duff (University of British Columbia) 

Rod Ellis (University of Auckland) 

James P. Lantolf (Pennsylvania State University)

Alison Mackey (Georgetown University)

Richard Schmidt (University of Hawaii at Manoa)

Merrill Swain (University of Toronto)

Elaine Tarone (University of Minnesota)

Over recent years, researchers in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have 
become increasingly concerned with questions about the nature of second language 
learning, questions which have implications both for applied linguistics and for 
language teachers.  For some scholars language learning is primarily a matter of 
understanding how the brain works to process information, an essentially cognitive 
perspective which has been hugely influential in shaping proposals for form-focused 
instruction and task-based language teaching. For other scholars, understanding 
language learning means understanding how learning and learners are situated in social 
contexts, a perspective which highlights such matters as learner identities and human 
agency, and the roles played by culture and social relationships in the second language 
classroom. For others, understanding SLA means understanding how the social and the 
cognitive necessarily work together.

For this conference we invite contributors to address (from their own particular 
perspectives) both cognitive and social aspects of SLA, whether this be to argue for 
their interdependence, or else to argue how one aspect should take priority over the 
other. These perspectives could entail theoretical issues in SLA or more practical 
concerns related to language pedagogy, or, both.

We envisage the conference will be of interest to researchers in applied linguistics 
and to teachers who are concerned with the social and the cognitive dimensions of 
second language teaching and learning.  

We invite submitted proposals for papers related to our conference theme. Proposals 
relating to any of the following areas of enquiry are welcome:

Social perspectives on cognitive theories of language learning (e.g. information 
processing)  
Situated cognition: studies of the impact of context on cognitive processes  
Critiques of sociocultural theories of mind in reference to language learning  
Social and cognitive issues for task-based language teaching 
Social and cognitive issues for learning theories based around ‘interaction’ 
The relative significance of ‘acquisition’ and ‘participation’ as key metaphors for a 
learning theory 
Implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge and social context 
Social identity in language learning/teaching 
Social influences on attention in language learning 
Social and cognitive dimensions of interlanguage pragmatics