BUCLD 31 Call For Papers

[BUCLD]

CALL FOR PAPERS
 
THE 31st ANNUAL BOSTON UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT 
NOVEMBER 3-5, 2006

Keynote Speakers:
Roberta Golinkoff, University of Delaware
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University
"Breaking the Language Barrier: The View from the Radical Middle"

Plenary Speaker: 
Jürgen M. Meisel, University of Hamburg & University of Calgary
“Multiple First Language Acquisition:
A Case for Autonomous Syntactic Development in the Simultaneous Acquisition of 
More Than One Language”

Lunch Symposium: 
“Future Directions in Search of Genes that Influence Language:
Phenotypes, Molecules, Brains, and Growth”
Mabel Rice, University of Kansas
Helen Tager-Flusberg, Boston University
Simon Fisher, University of Oxford
Discussant: Gary Marcus, New York University  


All topics in the fields of first and second language acquisition from all 
theoretical perspectives will be fully considered, including: 

* Bilingualism 
* Cognition & Language 
* Creoles & Pidgins 
* Dialects
* Discourse 
* Exceptional Language 
* Gesture
* Hearing Impairment and Deafness
* Input & Interaction 
* Language Disorders 
* Linguistic Theory (Syntax, Semantics, Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon) 
* Literacy & Narrative 
* Neurolinguistics 
* Pragmatics 
* Pre-linguistic Development 
* Signed Languages 
* Sociolinguistics 
* Speech Perception & Production
Presentations will be 20 minutes long followed by a 10 minute question period. 
Posters will be on display for a full day with two attended sessions during 
the day. 

ABSTRACT FORMAT AND CONTENT 

Abstracts submitted must represent original, unpublished research. 
Abstracts should be anonymous, clearly titled and no more than 450 words in 
length. They should also fit on one page, with an optional second page for 
references or figures if required. Abstracts longer than 450 words will be 
rejected without being evaluated. Please note the word count at the bottom of 
the abstract. Note that words counts need not include the abstract title or 
the list of references. 

A suggested format and style for abstracts is available at:
http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/template.html

An excellent example of how to formulate the content of the abstract can be 
found on the LSA website at:
http://www.lsadc.org/info/dec02bulletin/model.html

The criteria used by the reviewers to evaluate abstracts can be found at:
 http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/reviewprocess.html#rate


All abstracts must be submitted as PDF documents. Specific instructions for 
how to create PDF documents are available at:
http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/pdfinfo.html. 
If you encounter a problem creating a PDF file, please contact us for further 
assistance. 
Please use the first author's last name as the file name (eg. Smith.pdf). No 
author information should appear anywhere in the contents of the PDF file 
itself. 

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS 

Electronic submission: To facilitate the abstract submission process, 
abstracts will be submitted using the form available at the conference website 
at http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/abstract.htm.
Specific instructions for abstract submission are available on this website. 
Abstracts will be accepted between March 15 and May 15. 
Contact information for each author must be submitted via webform. No author 
information should appear anywhere in the abstract PDF. 
At the time of submission you will be asked whether you would like your 
abstract to be considered for a poster, a paper, or both. 
Although each author may submit as many abstracts as desired, we will accept 
for presentation by each author: (a) a maximum of 1 first authored 
paper/poster, and (b) a maximum of 2 papers/posters in any authorship status. 
Note that no changes in authorship (including deleting an author or changing 
author order) will be possible after the review process is completed or for 
publication in the conference proceedings. 

DEADLINE

All submissions must be received by 8:00 PM EST, May 15, 2006.
Late abstracts will not be considered, whatever the reason for the delay. 
We regret that we cannot accept abstract submissions by fax or email.
Submissions via surface mail will only be accepted in special circumstances, 
on a case by case basis. Please contact us well in advance of the submission 
deadline (May 15, 2006) to make these arrangements.

ABSTRACT SELECTION 

Each abstract is blind reviewed by 5 reviewers from a panel of approximately 
100 international scholars. Further information about the review process is 
available  at http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/reviewprocess.html. 
Acknowledgment of receipt of the abstract will be sent by email as soon as 
possible after receipt. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent to 
first authors only, in early August, by email. Pre-registration materials and 
preliminary schedule will be available in late August, 2006. 
If your abstract is accepted, you will need to submit a 150-word abstract 
including title, author(s) and affiliation(s) for inclusion in the conference 
handbook. Guidelines will be provided along with notification of acceptance. 
Abstracts accepted as papers will be invited for publication in the BUCLD 
Proceedings. Abstracts accepted as posters will be invited for publication 
online only, but not in the printed version. 
All conference papers will be selected on the basis of abstracts submitted. 
Although each abstract will be evaluated individually, we will attempt to 
honor requests to schedule accepted papers together in group sessions. No 
schedule changes will be possible once the schedule is set. Scheduling 
requests for religious reasons only must be made before the review process is 
complete (i.e. at the time of submission). A space is provided on the abstract 
submission webform to specify such requests. 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

Information regarding the conference may be accessed on the BUCLD website:
http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/ 
Boston University Conference on Language Development 
96 Cummington Street, Room 244 
Boston, MA 02215 
U.S.A. 
Telephone: (617) 353-3085 
e-mail: langconf at bu.edu