1^st Round of Workgroup Meetings

Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 6-7 March 2014

OPEN CALL

 

YOU ARE INVITED TO the 1st Round of Working Group Meetings of the “New Speakers” network which will take place in Edinburgh in March 2014. The “New Speakers” network is an EU-funded initiative aimed at fostering collaboration amongst researchers, facilitating the sharing of findings, and identifying key issues in research on multilingualism.

“New Speakers” refer to multilingual individuals and groups who adopt and use a language variety different from their native language.  The aim of the network is to create a dialogue amongst scholars, practitioners and policy makers interested in the “new speaker” concept and who work within and across different multilingual strands including:

• Regional linguistic minorities, where there are now a growing numbers of “new speakers” who as a result of revitalization projects have learned their heritage languages outside of the home through formal schooling or as adults
• Immigrant communities, where becoming a “new speaker” of a language is often essential to participating in the economic, social, political and artistic life of their new host community.
• Transnational workers, who to varying degrees invest in multilingualism at work, at home and through the cultural products they consume

This first set of Working Group Meetings is intended to facilitate initial dialogue amongst researchers, practitioners and policy makers from different parts of Europe whose work looks specifically at “new speakers” and issues around “new speakerness” or whose work engages with multilingual practices more broadly. We welcome individual researchers as well as those linked to broader research teams to participate in our first round of working group meetings and to share their work with other members of the network.

A fuller description of the theme of the network can be found at http://www.cost.eu/domains_actions/isch/Actions/IS1306

(see downloads for Memorandum of Understanding)

ABSTRACTS

Please submit an abstract of no more than 400 words briefly describing how your research links to the overall theme of the network. Please also include the name(s), affiliation, and contact details of you and/or your research group.

Participants are invited to indicate their interest in participating in ONE of the ‘core’ Working Groups (WG) of the network:

WG1: Indigenous minority speakers

WG2: Immigrants

WG3: Transnational workers

Abstracts and enquiries should be sent to costnewspeaker@gmail.com

Closing date 20th January 2014

*Please note that places at the event are limited.

Bernie O’Rourke

Email – B.M.A.O’Rourke@hw.ac.uk

Academia – Bernadette O’Rourke

Twitter – @BernORourke