9. Forthcoming Meetings

Linguapax: World Congress on Language Policies Barcelona, April 16-20, 2002

Presentation
Since the begining of the 90s, the political, economic and technological changes have raised the need to start a deep process of thought about how to face these changes as far as the fast spreading of new technologies, and the processes of globalization in the economic, cultural and social spheres have a strong and intense influence on languages, no matter their demographic strength or their official status. And these processes can be a threat to linguistic diversity as a fundamental part of the World's heritage. Within this context, a series of tendencies, extralinguistic factors and needs have a direct impact on languages, especially on the so-called minority languages and on small and medium-sized languages:
1. In many cases, experience shows how civil society and civic organizations can push official authorities to a more positive attitude towards minority languages;
2. The main challenges faced by minority languages are to be found in the impact of new technologies in the globalization process;
3. There is a need for new methodological and pedagogical approaches to the teaching and learning of minority languages;
4. Language exercises a powerful symbolic attraction as a tool to build up collective and individual identities;
5. The schooling system can discriminate against minority languages pupils under the cover of laws that, at first glance, seem to support and promote the learning process of these pupils;
6. Most of the time, gaps are to be found between law and its practice; and
7. NGOs, civic organizations, and other representatives of minority language groups are often more effective and fast moving than official authorities.
Therefore, minority language issues should be linked to highly relevant matters such as:
a) The strengthening of democracy
b) The increasing involvement of civil society
c) The recognition of linguistic rights as human rights
d) The improving of living conditions
e) The access to the labour market
f) The economic value-added of a language

Main topics to be discussed
The Institute LINGUAPAX, with the support of the Directorate General for Language Policy of the Government of Catalonia, therefore invites researchers, social actors and activists, politicians, lawyers and all those persons involved in the promotion of languages to take part in this World Congress, whose sessions will deal with the following topics:
1. Language laws and other legal instruments as tools for the promotion of languages:
design, implementation, evaluation and follow-up;
2. The management of linguistic diversity in large urban centres in order to ensure the maintenance of this diversity and to prevent tensions and conflicts related to the use of diffferent languages, and at the same time to ensure that the gradual integration of the host society will be carried out through the medium of the autochtonous language(s) of this society;
3. The study of concrete models and experiences in the field of language policy and their evaluation according to cost-effectiveness criteria in order to ensure a positive output of the invested human, technical and economic resources;
4. The effective participation of civil society (civic organizations, NGOs, etc.) in the design, implementation and follow-up of language policies; and
5. The challenge of new technologies and the production of linguistic resources to promote language diversity and the culture of peace.

There will also be complementary activities as exhibitions of materials: posters, grammars, dictionaries, didactic tools, multimedia demos, sociolinguistic resources available on the Internet, etc.

Structure of the Congress
The sessions of the Congress will be structured around six main keynote addresses and five concurrent workshops. Two 30 minutes papers will be delivered for each workshop by relevant scholars in order to focus and stimulate further debate and discussion. People registered for the Congress will receive these papers one month before the celebration of the Congress. The working languages will be English, French, Catalan and Spanish.

Keynote addresses
· Dr. E. Annamalai (Former Director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages) Language policy in multilingual societies.
· Dr. L. Khubchandani (Director of the Center for Communication Studies, India) Demographic imperatives in language planning.
· Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (Roskilde University, Denmark) Language Policies and Education
· Dr. Peter Mühlhäusler (University of Adelaide, Australia) Theoretical approaches to language policies
· Dr. E. Nolue Emenanjo (National Institute for Nigerian Languages) Language Policy and Cultural Identities
· Representative of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation

Concurrent workshops
Workshop 1: Language laws and their implementation.
Workshop 2: The management of linguistic diversity in large cities.
Workshop 3: Models of language policies: case studies.
Workshop 4: The role of civil society in language policy processes.
Workshop 5: New information technologies and small and medium-sized languages.

The Congress will take place in the World Trade Center of Barcelona situated in the Old Harbor (Port Vell-Moll de Barcelona) of the city . For more information please visit the web site http://www.wtcbarcelona.com

Call for papers
Papers for the Congress should be submitted to the Linguapax Institute (info(at)linguapax.org) before February 15, indicating the workshop in which they should be presented. Papers must be four pages (A4) long maximum, single-space, 12 point, headed by title, author(s), and affiliation.

The Scientific Committee of the Congress will review all the papers and will select those to be presented at the workshops.

Scientific Committee
Mr. Bojan Brezigar (President of the EBLUL)
Dr. Denis Cunningham (President of FIPLV)
Dr. Lachman M. Khubchandani (Director of the Centre for Communication Studies, India)
Mr. Fèlix Martí (President of the Institute LINGUAPAX
Mr. Bartumeu Melià (Researcher)
Dr. Mohamed Miled (Director of the Institut Supérieur des Langues de Tunis)
Dr. Irmela Neu (Fachhochschule München)
Mr. Joseph Poth (Former director of the Languages Division of UNESCO)
Mr. Raymond Renard (Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair in Linguistic Planning and Didactic of Languages at the University of Mons, Belgium)
Dr. Joan Rubin (Independent consultant and researcher)
Dr. Ignace Sanwidi (Director of the UNESCO Centre in Dakar)

See more details at the conference web-site:
http://www.linguapax.org/

LREC 2002 Workshop on Resources and Tools in Field Linguistics: 26-27 May 2002, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain

There is general recognition that many of the world's languages are rapidly losing speakers. This constitutes loss of a rich cultural heritage, a loss which future generations will deeply regret. Considerable efforts have been made to halt this decline and revitalize these languages; but the decline of these languages is now so far advanced that a majority of presently existing languages will become extinct within this century. If this heritage is to be preserved in any sense, then there must be a serious effort towards documenting and archiving linguistic data on these languages, so that reconstruction of the essentials of such languages is possible in posterity, along with the living cultural environment in which they presently function.

The urgency of this task has changed the direction of field linguistics, and imposed on it completely new requirements. The highest priority can no longer be placed upon the simple publication of field-work, even when based on careful, in-depth analysis of linguistic phenomena. To preserve as much as possible of the cultural heritage of these languages, we need instead multimedia recordings, which are accompanied by carefully designed linguistic annotations. And we must utilize for this purpose technologies which guarantee long-term access to all the many facets of the material. In addition, the advent of the World-Wide-Web requires that the archived resources be available in new ways, and in conformance with the most widely adopted emergent standards. If this effort is to be successful, it must also include good relations with the members of the indigenous communities which provide the data, and a close cooperation between linguists and the engineers who provide the technology.

A number of important new initiatives, for example AILLA, DOBES, E-MELD, LACITO, and ASEDA, have begun work along these lines. There also exist other institutions, such as the Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics, which began still earlier the task of storing valuable recordings, and their accompanying added linguistic value.

The workshop will be held as a pre-conference workshop of the 3rd International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), which has expanded its scope to include field linguistics. We expect to have special sessions at the conference dedicated to the special needs and problems of field linguistics. LREC is unique amongst conferences world-wide, in that it brings together experts of diverse expertise, who both create and maintain language resources. The LREC announcement text (www.lrec-conf.org) indicates that the conference has an extended scope and a broad view of what constitutes language resources. In addition, the LREC conference includes exhibitions and training courses, which we expect participants of the proposed workshop would find very useful indeed.

As part of the LREC conference, the primary goal of the workshop is dedicated to structural and technological issues involved in language documentation including its cultural background, and in ways of accessing archived data. Deeper linguistic aspects of the documentation endeavor and its attendant legal and ethical aspects can only be touched briefly. We mention here a few keywords which indicate the scope of the workshop:

· Media Formats
· Digitization Methods
· Project Workflow Schemes
· Metadata for Resource Retrieval
· Long-Term Archiving Strategies
· Annotation Structures and Formats
· Interlinear Text Formats
· Character Encoding Guidelines
· Language Encoding Guidelines
· Linguistic Encoding Guidelines
· Dictionary Structures and Formats
· Typology Databases
· Geographic Information Systems
· Integration of Field Notes
· Data Types in language documentation
· Web-based Archive Access
· Tools for language documentation
· User Interfaces for Native Speakers

The workshop will be organized so as to provide time for large projects to inform interested researchers about the methods they use and their experiences so far. It will further provide time and space for other projects to describe how they document languages. Panel and discussion sessions will allow interested researchers to raise questions and comment on the methods chosen.

The goals of the workshop are: (1) To improve our understanding of the methods to be applied when documenting language data, with a special focus on languages which are in danger of becoming extinct; and
(2) To discuss methods which have already been applied by different projects and which hold promise.

Workshop Organizers
Peter Austin, Melbourne Univ., Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan Univ., Peter Wittenburg, Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics

Important Dates
Abstract Submissions 15 Feb 2002
Notification of Acceptance 15 March 2002
Final Versions 12 April 2002
Workshop 26-27 May 2002

Abstract Submission
Submitted abstracts should consist of about 400 words. The abstracts should be submitted electronically as PDF, PS, RTF, or plain text files to the following address: lrec-workshop(at)mpi.nl. The deadline for submitting the abstracts is February 15th. The notification of acceptance will be sent by March 15th 2002.

Paper Submissions and Proceedings
There is one month between the notification of acceptance and submission of a workshop paper. Papers have to be submitted electronically to the same address (lrec-workshop(at)mpi.nl) as PDF, PS, RTF, or plain text files. There will be proceedings of this workshop which will be made available free to all participants at the beginning of the workshop.

Organizational Matters
For all questions with respect to the content of this workshop, please send emails to lrec-workshop(at)mpi.nl Since this workshop will be embedded in the LREC conference all emails with respect to organizational and financial questions can be addressed to the official LREC email address as well: lrec(at)ilc.pi.cnr.it. Forms for registration, accommodation reservation etc will be found on the LREC web-site: www.lrec-conf.org

For current information about the workshop see: www.mpi.nl/lrec

Program Committee
Anthony Aristar, Peter Austin, Steven Bird, Bernard Comrie, Helen Dry, Arienne Dwyer, Dafydd Gibbon, Nikolaus Himmelmann, Terry Langendoen, Stephen Levinson, Kazuto Matsumura, Patrick McConvell, Tony McEnery, Boyd Michailovsky, Ulrike Mosel, Peter Muysken, David Nash, David Nathan, Randy LaPolla, Hans-Jürgen Sasse, Gunter Senft, Gary Simons, Peter Wittenburg

LREC 2002 Workshop on Portability Issues in Human Language Technologies: 1 June 2002, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain

IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for abstracts: 12th Feb 2002
Notification of acceptance: 26th Feb 2002
Final version of the paper for the workshop proceedings: 2nd April 2002
Workshop: 1st June 2002

MOTIVATION AND AIMS
There are more than 6000 languages in the world, yet only a small number possess the resources required for implementation of Human Language Technologies (HLT). This imbalance in technical resources available to languages of the world is likely to result in a significant linguistic divide that further exacerbates global social and economic inequities unless decisive action is taken relatively soon. One potential means of ameliorating this imbalance in technology resources is through encouraging research in the portability of human language technology for multilingual application.

Portability issues in HLT are important in the structuring and acquisition of local language resources. The primary objective of the workshop is to bring together participants from academia and industry to discuss and disseminate the current state of the art in multilingual research and development in the context of cross-language HLT transfer. Major challenges for HLT-portability research will also be discussed.

The workshop will focus on the following topics and languages:
· Linguistic corpora and portability (new models, language maps, novel systems for creating and managing multilingual data);
· Automatic Speech Recognition (generic design in acoustic modelling, task portability, cross-language portability);
· Acoustic modelling (monolingual and multilingual modelling, cross-language transfer, finite state automata, decision trees and data-driven methods);
· Dictionary development (word-definition issues, automatic dictionary acquisition);
· Language modelling (the Internet as a linguistic resource, language modelling in spoken language processing).
· Natural Language Processing (cross-language transfer of HLT):
· Parsing;
· Translation.

The proposed workshop is intended to continue the series of SALTMIL (ISCA SIG) http://isl.ntftex.uni-lj.si/SALTMIL/ LREC workshops related to the integration of local and global languages ("Language Resources for European Minority Languages" (LREC'98)) as well as the workshop on "Developing Language Resources for Minority Languages: Re-usability and Strategic Priorities" (LREC'00)).

http://www.lrec-conf.org/lrec2002/

WORKSHOP AGENDA
Oral Session: Portability Issues in HLT
14:30 Workshop Welcome and Introduction- Bojan Petek
14:35 Multilingual Time Maps: Portable Phonotactic Models for Speech Technology- Julie Carson-Berndsen
15:00 Automatic Phonetic and Prosodic Characterization of Spoken Language- Steven Greenberg
15:25 Creating Re-usable Documentation for Little-studied Languages- Steven Bird
15:50 Some Issues in Speech Recognizer Portability- Lori Lamel
Oral Session: HLT and the Coverage of Languages
16:30 Challenges and Opportunities in Portability of Human Language Technologies- Bojan Petek
16:55 Atlantis Project: Resources Available in the Internet to Serve Speakers and Learners of Minority Languages- Salvador Climent
17:20 Towards the definition of a basic toolkit for HLT- Kepa Sarasola
17:45 Panel Discussion - Invited speakers will be included as panelist members.
18:15 Poster Session 20:00 End

WORKSHOP ORGANIZING AND PROGRAM COMMITTEE
- Julie Carson-Berndsen, UC Dublin, Ireland
- Steven Greenberg, International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, USA
- Bojan Petek, Univ. Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Kepa Sarasola, University of the Basque Country, Donostia, Basque Country

SUBMISSION
Papers are invited that describe research and development in the area of Human Language Technology portability. All contributed papers will be presented in poster format. Each submission should include: title; author(s); affiliation(s); and contact author's e-mail address, postal address, telephone and fax numbers. Abstracts (max. 500 words, plain-text format) should be sent via email: Bojan Petek, bojan.petek(at)uni-lj.si

All contributed papers will be printed in the workshop proceedings.

9th annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium,Montana State Univ. Conf. Center, Bozeman MN, USA: Jun 9-11 2002.

Information about the symposiums, a registration form, and workshop proposal form can be found at the Teaching Indigenous Languages web site at: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TIL.html

Goals of the symposium are to:
1. To bring together American Indian and other indigenous language educators and activists to share ideas and experiences on how to teach effectively American Indian and other indigenous languages in and out of the classroom.
2. To provide a forum for exchange of scholarly research on teaching American Indian and other indigenous languages.
3. To disseminate through the Internet and monographs recent research and thinking on best practices to promote, preserve, and protect American Indian and other indigenous languages.

Language Awareness: ALA 2002, Umeå University, Sweden, 1-3 July 2002.

Plenary speakers:
Prof Nick Ellis, Univ Bangor, Great Britain
Prof Claire Kramsch, Univ Berkeley, USA
Prof Inger Lindberg, Univ Gothenburg, Sweden

The ALA (Association for Language Awarenes) supports and promotes activities across the whole breadth of Language Awareness. It defines Language Awareness as explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use. Activities are conducted in different areas of Language Awareness, e.g. mother tongue learning, foreign language learning, teacher education, language use in professional settings, and in the community, at a variety of levels across the lifespan (e.g. primary, secondary and tertiary education, professional training and practice, community education programmes).

Excursion
The Sunday afternoon excursion includes visits to some exotic spots in the surroundings of Umeå as well as an opportunity to experience the long hours of day light, the "white Nordic nights".

Website
http://www.mos.umu.se/kalender/ala2002 Conference organisers: Anita Malmqvist and Ingela Valfridsson, Umeå University. Email: ala2002(at)eng.umu.se

ARCLING II: Archaeology and Linguistics of Australia: National Museum of Australia and Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies: Canberra, 1-4 October 2002

The last decade has advanced our knowledge of Australian indigenous languages and the archaeological record, and has also seen an upsurge in hypotheses and controversies in prehistory, including linguistic prehistory. The time is ripe to assess the discoveries and theories, and to provide a forum for cross-fertilisation between Australian and world prehistory; and between the different disciplines which contribute to our overall understanding of prehistory. ARCLING II has been planned for 2002 to bring together archaeologists, linguists and others to record progress made and map out the challenges we now face.

The first ARCLING conference was held in Darwin in 1991, bringing together leading archaeologists, linguists and anthropologists from Australia and overseas to share ideas and build foundations for an interdisciplinary approach to the prehistory of Australia, drawing on international work of a similar kind. This resulted in the publication of Archaeology and Linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspective edited by PatrickMcConvell and Nicholas Evans, published by Oxford University Press. We call for proposals for papers and for sessions for ARCLING II: see below for details.

Conference organisation
The conference will be divided into seven thematic sessions (see ëConference Topics below) and at least one session for other papers not falling into session themes. The thematic sessions will include invited speakers. The conference will last 4 days (Tuesday-Friday, 9-5) with four sessions a day of 90 minutes each. Each of the topics will take up roughly two sessions. About 100-120 people will attend and it will be held without parallel sessions in a single theatre with rooms nearby for smaller meetings , receptions,book displays as necessary. 7 keynote papers of 45 minutes (30 minutes + 15 questions/discussion) will be invited (one for each session). Another 18 papers of 30 minutes (20 minutes+ 10) will be selected from abstracts submitted, and distributed between sessions.

Submission of abstracts
If you wish to give a paper, please send a title and abstract to Patrick McConvell by 15 February 2002.

This should be a Word or RTF attachment to an email message of between 200 and 500 words. In the message, you may optionally specify if you wish the talk to be part of any of the thematic sessions (topics) already identified, and any equipment you will need for presentation.

Notification of acceptance of papers will take place in March 2002. Abstracts of all papers invited or accepted will be available on the conference web-site from March 2002, and full papers by September 2002. Papers will be 8000 words long maximum.

Conference theme:
Echoes of ancient footsteps: archaeological and linguistic evidence in Australian culture history
The conference aims to identify signatures of migration and language shift in prehistoric language speads, especially among hunter-gatherers in Australia, and refine methods of constructing stratigraphy and chronology, by combining evidence of proto-cultures and culture contact from archeology, linguistics and other branches of anthropology.

Conference Topics
1: Methods and models in interdisciplinary prehistory
2: Language spread among Hunter-gatherers
3: Perspectives from genetics and biological anthropology
4: Hunter-gatherers: spreads in the interior
5: Coasts, islands and the peopling of the Sahul periphery
6: Artifacts: Technology and terminology
7: Stories, places and names: Indigenous landscapes and views of the past

Contact: Dr. Patrick McConvell, Convener, Planning Committee
Email: patrick.mcconvell(at)aiatsis.gov.au phone: +61-2-62461116; fax +61-2-62497714
URL: http://crlc.anu.edu.au/arcling2

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