9. Forthcoming Meetings

Summer Courses in the Basque Country, 1998

Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998
From: Cenoz Iragui Jasone fipceirj(at)vc.ehu.es

The University of the Basque Country is organizing four Summer courses on linguistics in July 1998. Please notice that all the courses on linguistics (B1, B2, B3, B4) have English as one of the official languages.

The courses on linguistics are the following:

B1. What is the meaning of a word? 26,27,29 June Directors: Juan Uriagereka & Javier Ormazabal e-mail: fipvaelv(at)vc.ehu.es

B2. theoretical linguistics: latest developments within the minimalist approach to syntax 1-3 July Directors: Myriam Uribe-Etxeberria & Vidal Valmala e-mail: fipvaelv(at)vc.ehu.es

B3. Code separation and code mixing in early bilingualism with minority languages 9-11 July (special European Community grants) Directors: Andoni Barrena & M. Jose Exeizabarrena e-mail: fepezsem(at)vc.ehu.es

B4. Teaching minority languages to adults: curricular innovation 14-17 July Directors: Miren Azkarate & Juanba Bergara e-mail: habe-didakti(at)ej-gv.es

For further information on the program
please look at the Web page
http://www.sc.ehu.es/scrwwwsu/b.htm
or contact the course directors

Cursos de Verano/Udako Ikastaroak
Apdo 1042
20080 San Sebastian, Spain

Summer Institute of Linguistics at U Oregon June- August 1998: Workshop in Lexicography headed by Russian Africanist

The Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of Oregon (Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA), as part of its regular offerings, will be sponsoring a lexicography workshop from 23 June to 14 August, 1998. The workshop will be led by Valentin Vydrine, of the European University of St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Vydrine is a specialist in the lexicography of West Africa, and is corrently compiling a massive comparative dictionary of the Manding languages. This workshop will be designed for all linguistic and anthropological fieldworkers who are in the process of preparing a dictionary of an underdescribed language.

Oregon SIL also offers a variety of graduate and undergraduate level courses in field-oriented linguistics, including a "Workshop in Grammatical Description."

For more information on the workshops and other offerings of the Summer Institute of Linguistics at Oregon, please check out our web page at
http://www.sil.org/schools/
oregon/oregon.html or contact Tom Payne

(tpayne(at)oregon.uoregon.edu)

33rd International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA: August 5-7, 1998

Papers on all aspects of the study, preservation, and teaching of Salish and neighboring languages are welcome.

The conference will be three full days: 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, 9:00 a.m. through 9:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Native language program presentations and papers of practical interest to teachers will be interspersed throughout the program on all days. All sessions will be plenary. Reports on language programs will generally be 20 minutes long; discussion will follow.

Every author of a preprint paper will be expected to present a 5-minute, non-technical introduction to her/his work, geared toward a general audience unfamiliar with the paper. Presenters may add an optional 5 minutes of technical introduction. Discussion of the paper will follow.

Information on conference organizers, housing, submission, deadlines, and formats is available at:

http://humanities.byu.edu/icsnl/icsnl.htm

Youth conference on minority languages etc. in Brussels, late August 1998

I am writing on behalf of my youth party, the Volksunie Jongeren, here in Brussels. We are attempting to organise a 4-5 day conference later this year (end of August). The conference would deal with a range of issues related to minorities within the EU and Europe. (constitutional, political, language rights etc.)

If the conference project is successful travel and accomodation expenses will be funded for those members of youth organisations and parties selected. They would be asked to speak about the situation in their home countries/communities.

Yours sincerely,
David Fergusson
intoenglish(at)compuserve.com

Minority Languages in Context: Diversity and Standardisation: Chur (Switzerland), 21-23 Sept. 1998

Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 01:04:05 +0200
Lorenza Mondada mondada(at)ubaclu.unibas.ch

Themes addressed by the congress
The aim of the congress is to stimulate the study and discussion of contextual dimensions within which minority languages are spoken, shared and taught. The congress will provide a forum for the exchange and discussion of descriptive and comparative reports from a variety of regional and national settings including those in Switzerland. The contexts within which minority languages evolve can be described from differing points of view along a continuum between two opposing poles. At one end of the continuum lay attempts to achieve stability and homogeneity which are usually articulated through projects aiming at the planning and normalisation of minority languages in order to present these codes as having equal status to adjacent majority languages. At the other end of the continuum we find destabilisation and heterogeneity observable at points of contact and overlap between minority and majority languages and often leading to hybrid forms which challenge traditional notions of linguistic code. These two poles involve a variety of actors and agents of differing social and institutional status, all exercising varying degrees of influence on the language situation in question. The congress will address three thematic areas highlighting the full range of this continuum.

Thematic area one: Standardisation of Minority Languages

Thematic area two: Minority and Majority Languages: coexistence, relationships and overlap.

Thematic area three: Minority Languages at School

Keynote speakers Sessions
The thematic development of each day will be provided by speakers reporting on data and research from numerous and diverse linguistic situations around the world.

Activities of the Lia Rumantscha and other projects from the Graubnden region of Switzerland The Lia Rumantscha will organise a visit to their institute where they will present their current theoretical and practical research projects addressing languages and education in Graubnden.

Activities of the Swiss Association of Applied Linguistics (VALS/ASLA) During the congress the Association will hold its annual general meeting. The VALS/ASLA special interests groups (SIGs) will organise parallel sessions focusing on their own topics:

SIG Teaching languages for academic purposes:
Anton Lachner (anton.lachner(at)aal.unibe.ch -
http://www.aal.unibe.ch/vals);
SIG Fachsprachen-forschung: Jrg Niederhauser
(juerg.niederhauser(at)germ.unibe.ch);
SIG Lehrwer-autoren: Francesca Roncoroni (francesca.roncoroni(at)aal.unibe.ch).

A report from the Federal Commission on Language Learning and Teaching in Switzerland This commission was set up to investigate language learning and teaching in Switzerland and make specific recommendations for the future to the cantonal education authorities. During the congress the commission will present its final report.

(see: http://www.romsem.unibas
.ch/sprachenkonzept/)

Activities of the Fondazione Lingue e Culture

This foundation will present its manifesto on languages and cultures in the multilingual and multicultural Switzerland.

Dates / Venue:

21st - 23rd September 1998, Regional Assembly Building in Chur (Switzerland)

Accommodation:

Participants are kindly requested to book their own hotel rooms. Further information can be obtained through Chur Turismus, Grabenstrasse 5, CH 7002 Chur, tel. +41-81-252-1818, fax. + 41-81-252-9076.

Enrolment:

Students: 70.-; members of VALS/ASLA: 110.-; non-members: 130.-; dinner on Tuesday evening : 50.-.

Definitive Program

The definitive program will be sent out to all those who have enroled by around mid June. It will contain summaries of the all contributions as well as a detailed description of all other congress events.
For more information, contact:
Lorenza Mondada, Romanisches Seminar, Stapfelberg 7/9, CH 4051 Basel. Fax: +41-61-267-1286
email: mondada(at)ubaclu.unibas.ch

International Symposium on Natural Sacred Sites, Cultural Diversity and Biological Diversity. UNESCO House, Paris, 22-25 September 1998

The symposium reflects increasing worldwide interest in a whole series of interelated concerns, including the interelations of culture and nature, traditional ecological knowledge and “bottom-up” approaches to biodiversity conservation. It is hoped that participants at the symposium will include researchers from a wide range of disciplines, representatives of indigenous peoples, and development planners and resource managers of various kinds. The focus of the symposium will be squarely on the interfaces and interactions between natural sacred sites, cultural specificities and biodiversity conservation and management.

Completed registration forms and abstracts should be sent to Marie Roué, as indicated on the attachments. From our side we would be glad to respond to any questions concerning the symposium.

Organizer from UNESCO
Malcolm Hadley, Division of Ecological Sciences, UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris, Cedex 15, France
Direct Tel: (33) (1) 45 68 40 35
Direct Fax: (33) (1) 45 68 58 04
E-mail: m.hadley(at)unesco.org

Third International Conference on Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages, Netherlands, 26-27 November, 1998
Koningshof Conference Center, Veldhoven

In line with the two previous International Conferences on Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages (Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands; 1988 and 1992), the aim of this conference is to bring together recent developments from various disciplines. The ambition of this third conference is to offer a major contribution to a theoretical discussion on the determinants of language shift and language loss, supported by the exchange of new research data. While the two preceding conferences concentrated mainly on the questions `What is lost of the language?' (structural-linguistic aspects) and `Why does shift occur?' (sociological and social-psychological explanatory factors), the Veldhoven conference will focus on two questions; `Why does shift occur?' and `How is a language lost?', i.e., what are the psycholinguistic processes involved in language loss? Emphasis will be on the interaction between the process of transferring from the first to the second language and the gradual decline of skills in the first language, at the individual and group levels.

Plenary speakers are invited to make inspiring and thought-provoking remarks on the two conference themes outlined above, as well as on the broader theoretical framework. Together with the contributions of the free paper presenters, the interaction between plenary speakers and participants forms the input for workshops and a round table discussion on the development of an integrated theoretical framework. This framework can then serve as a renewed starting point for continued research into language shift and loss in the new millennium. The organizing committee has also been open to contributions from disciplines that have recently entered or touched upon the field and may shed a new light on the language change processes involved.

The organizing committee will determine the best manner in which the results of the conference can be published.

Programme

The conference will consist of three sections. The first section addresses the sociological and social-psychological explanatory context in which language shift processes take place. The second section deals with language attrition from a psycholinguistic perspective, and the third is fully devoted to the building of an integrated explanatory framework for processes of language shift and loss. In memory of Willem Fase, one of the initiators of the First and Second Conference on Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages, who died in 1997, a new forum called the Willem Fase Lecture has been set up. This plenary lecture forum will be granted to a promising scholar, to be selected from the abstracts submitted.

General Information

Conference Secretariat
Tilburg University
Research Group on Language and Minorities
c/o Heleen Strating-Keurentjes
P.O. Box 90153
NL-5000 LE Tilburg
Tel +31 13 4662588
Fax +31 13 4663110
E-mail: language.loss.98(at)kub.nl

Organizing Committee
· Dr. Ton Ammerlaan, Arnhem School of Business
· Madeleine Hulsen, University of Nijmegen
· Dr. Jetske Klatter-Folmer, Tilburg University
· Heleen Strating-Keurentjes, Tilburg University
· Piet Van Avermaet, University of Leuven
· Dr. Kutlay Yagmur, Tilburg University

Scientific Committee
· Prof. Kees de Bot, University of Nijmegen
· Prof. Michael Clyne, Monash University, Melbourne
· Prof. Joshua Fishman, Stanford University, California/Yeshiva University, New York
· Prof. Koen Jaspaert, University of Leuven
· Dr. Sjaak Kroon, Tilburg University

Location
The conference will be held at Koningshof Conference Center, Veldhoven, the Netherlands. This modern conference center is situated in forested areas, only fifteen minutes from the city of Eindhoven and Eindhoven Airport.

2nd International Symposium on Bilingualism 14-17 April, 1999, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Keynote Speakers
Michael Clyne (Monash)
Francois Grosjean (Neuchatel)
Monica Heller (OISE, Toronto)
Carol Myers Scotton (South Carolina)

Colloquia
1. Cross-linguistic studies of language acquisition (Marilyn M. Vihman:m.vihman(at)bangor.ac.uk and Ginny Mueller Gathercole: v.c.gathercole(at)bangor.ac.uk)
2. Bilingual cognitive processing (David Green: ucjtdg(at)ucl.ac.uk)
3. Input in bilingual acquisition (Annick de Houwer: vhouwer(at)uia.ua.ac.be and Elizabeth Lanza:
Elizabeth.Lanza(at)ilf.uio.no)
4. Neurolinguistics and acquired communication disorders in bilinguals (Franco Fabbro and Nick Miller:nicholas.miller(at)ncl.ac.uk)
5. Bilingualism in/and the deaf community (Clare Gallaway: gallaway(at)fs1.ed.man.ac.uk)
6. Grammar and Codeswitching (Jeanine Treffers-Daller: j-treffersdaller(at)wpg.uwe.ac.uk and Ad Backus: backus(at)ling.ucsd.edu)
7. Sociolinguistics of bilingual interaction (Ben Rampton: ben.rampton(at)tvu.ac.uk, Mukul Saxena: m.saxena(at)ucrysj.ac.uk and Li Wei: li.wei(at)ncl.ac.uk)
8. Trilingualism and trilinguals (Charlotte Hoffman: c.hoffman(at)mod.lang.salford.ac.uk)

Round-Table
Issues of identification and intervention in speech therapy services for the bilingual population (Chair: Deirdre Martin: martinm(at)edusrv1.bham.ac.uk)

Invitation To Participants
Submissions are invited for oral or poster presentations, on all aspects of bilingualism. Papers which are based on empirical research and which seek to forge new links between established fields (e.g. linguistics, psychology, speech & language pathology, sociology, and education) or to develop new sub-fields are particularly welcome. Contributors to the colloquia and round-table should contact the organisers informally as indicated above. All submissions will be peer-reviewed, anonymously, and selected on the grounds of originality, clarity, and significance of findings and conclusions.

Submission Of Abstracts
Each submission should include: 1) a cover sheet containing (a) the author(s) name(s); (b) address (including telephone number, e-mail and fax, if available); (c) affiliation; (d) the title of the presentation; (e) the category of the submission (oral presentation at parallel session or poster presentation); and (f) equipment required for presentation; and 2) Three copies of an abstract of no more than 500 words. Only hard-copies are considered (No e-mails pleases).

Abstracts should be sent, by 31 August, 1998, to: Mrs Gillian Cavagan, ISB organising committee, Department of Speech, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK, Fax: +44 (0)191 222 6518, from whom further details may also be obtained.
(E-mail: gillian.cavagan(at)newcastle.ac.uk).

For further details and registration forms, please see: http://www.ncl.ac/~nspeech

Historical Linguistics Conference At UBC In 1999

The 14th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL XIV) will take place August 9-13, 1999, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Papers are invited on any topic in historical linguistics relating to any language or language family. Papers which address the question of "Problems for Historical Linguistics in the Twenty-first Century" are particularly welcome. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted (preferably via e-mail) before October 15, 1998.

Proposals for workshops or special sessions are also welcome. Those wishing to organize a workshop should send their proposals to the Conference Organizer by the end of June 1998. Workshop organizers are responsible for soliciting/inviting papers. One day of the conference will be devoted to workshops.

To receive the Second Circular, or for further information, contact the Conference Organizer: Laurel Brinton, Dept. of English, #397-1873 East Mall, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z1 CANADA (fax: +1-604/822-6906; e-mail: ichlxiv(at)interchg.ubc.ca).

Contents.