37.671, Calls: Frontiers in Education - "Special Issue: Pandemic Pressures on Linguistic Diversity: Rethinking Migrant and Minority Language Maintenance and Education After COVID-19" (Jrnl)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-671. Wed Feb 18 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.671, Calls: Frontiers in Education - "Special Issue: Pandemic Pressures on Linguistic Diversity: Rethinking Migrant and Minority Language Maintenance and Education After COVID-19" (Jrnl)

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Date: 16-Feb-2026
From: Veronika Makarova [v.makarova at usask.ca]
Subject: Frontiers in Education - "Special Issue: Pandemic Pressures on Linguistic Diversity: Rethinking Migrant and Minority Language Maintenance and Education After COVID-19" (Jrnl)


Journal: Frontiers in Education
Issue: Pandemic Pressures on Linguistic Diversity: Rethinking Migrant
and Minority Language Maintenance and Education After COVID-19
Call Deadline: 16-Mar-2026

Topic Editors:
Professor V. Makarova (University of Saskatchewan, Canada)
Dr. V. Warditz (University of Cologne, Germany).
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of human life, including
language use and interaction dynamics in vulnerable minority
communities. Yet little research has examined its sociolinguistic
consequences (e.g., Gao, 2022; Zaini et al., 2025), and existing
findings remain inconclusive. Temporary closures of bilingual and
heritage-language schools, social-distancing measures, the
cancellation of community activities, and the shift to predominantly
online communication outside the immediate family reduced
opportunities for in-person interaction within immigrant communities.
These changes hindered integrational language learning and accelerated
shifts toward dominant languages. However, these dynamics vary widely
depending on language status and digital presence, community
demographics and sociolinguistic background, national context, and the
particular languages in contact. This is where our research topic
begins.
Our Research Topic aims to address the gap in understanding how
COVID-19 affected migrant and minority languages by examining the
challenges diverse communities faced in maintaining communication and
preserving their home languages during the pandemic. It also explores
how these communities coped with and overcame the linguistic barriers
created by COVID-19. The languages under investigation include
Indigenous, Indo-European, and non-Indo-European languages across a
wide range of global contexts.
While authors may choose their own theoretical frameworks, the editors
aim to present a broad selection of minoritized languages affected by
the pandemic and to identify factors that support language maintenance
during periods of restricted mobility and lockdowns.
This Research Topic examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected
migrant and minority languages, focusing on the linguistic challenges
communities faced and the strategies they used to maintain home and
regional languages under conditions of social distancing, isolation,
and limited community contact. We welcome contributions on migrant
languages brought by mobile populations (languages in motu), as well
as minority languages in situ that hold regional status yet have been
historically minoritized. Relevant themes include language maintenance
under lockdown, digital communication practices, intergenerational
transmission, community resilience, and comparative and theoretical
perspectives on language use during crises.
We invite a range of manuscript types, including original research
articles, brief reports, and case studies; theoretical and comparative
contributions that advance our understanding of linguistic resilience
in pandemic contexts are especially welcome.
Please submit an abstract by March 16, 2026 directly on the platform
by opening the link and clicking on the “Submit” > “Submit your
manuscript summary” buttons.
The full paper is due on June 19, 2026.

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Discipline of Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics




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