Now accepting submissions: BUCLD 33

Tue Apr 8 18:01:49 UTC 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

THE 33rd ANNUAL BOSTON UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 2, 2008

Keynote Speaker:
Barbara Landau, Johns Hopkins University
“Spatial Language and Spatial Cognition: Origins, Development, and  
Interaction”

Plenary Speaker:
Tom Roeper, University of Massachusetts – Amherst
“From Input to Mind: How Acquisition work captures the heart of  
linguistic theory and the soul of practical application”

Lunch Symposium:
“Brain mechanisms of language development: The promise and pitfalls  
of neuroimaging”
Dick Aslin, University of Rochester
Debra Mills, Emory University
Colin Phillips, University of Maryland
Helen Tager-Flusberg, Boston University

Submissions which present research on any topic in the fields of  
first and second language acquisition from any theoretical  
perspectives will be fully considered, including:

* Bilingualism
* Cognition & Language
* Creoles & Pidgins
* Dialects
* Discourse and Narrative
* Gesture
* Hearing Impairment and Deafness
* Input & Interaction
* Language Disorders (Autism, Down Syndrome, SLI, Williams Syndrome,  
etc.)
* Linguistic Theory (Syntax, Semantics, Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon)
* Neurolinguistics
* Pragmatics
* Pre-linguistic Development
* Reading and Literacy
* 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* Abstracts submitted must represent original, unpublished research.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 500  
words in length. Text of abstract should fit on one page, with a  
second page for examples, figures, or references. Abstracts longer  
than 500 words will be rejected without being evaluated.
* Please note the word count at the bottom of the abstract. Note that  
word counts should not include the abstract title, figure or table  
titles, examples, or the list of references.
* A suggested format and style for abstracts is available at:
http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/APPLIED/BUCLD/template.html
* Three examples of how to formulate the content of the abstract can  
be found at:
http://www.lsadc.org/info/dec02bulletin/model.html
http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/sociocultural/ 
abstracttips.html
http://www.ulcl.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=5&c=124
* 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.
* 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. Note that this preference  
is not revealed to the reviewers, and thus is not considered in the  
review process.
* 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, 2008.
* 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, 2008) to make these  
arrangements.

ABSTRACT SELECTION

* Each abstract is blind reviewed by 5 reviewers from a panel of  
approximately 180
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 2008.
* 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

General conference information is available at:
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

Questions about abstracts should be sent to abstract at bu.edu