THE POLITICS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
OUTLINE OF THE PROGRAMME
17-18 September 2015
University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies
Thursday 17 September
9.30-10.00: Welcome, brief introduction to UCL/SSEES;
10.00-11.30: Key-note addresses;
Nigel Vincent
“Monolingualism is not an option”
Anne Pauwels “Waiting for Godot. Universities, the politics and policies of language
learning”
11.30-12.00: Break (coffee and biscuits)
12.00-13.15: Two parallel sessions
1. Political realignment and geopolitical attitudes reflected in language teaching priorities
Vladimir Alexander Smith-Mesa “When Russian Was Considered ‘the Language of the Future’: the Cuban
Connection”
Jorge R. Schmidt “The Politics of Teaching English in Puerto Rico”
Lydia Sciriha “Arabic in Malta – Social, Cultural and Educational Perspectives”
A. G. Niculescu-Gorpin “East or West: Politics and Foreign Language Teaching in Romania”
2. Supply and Demand: the Perceived Importance of FL Education and the Planning of Language Provision
Abigail Parrish “Foreign language provision and learners’ attitudes in UK schools”
Norah Leroy “Where there’s a political will, there’s a way: teaching primary MFL in France”
William P. Rivers and Richard D. Brecht “The Demand and Supply of Linguistic Human Capital in the US, with
Some Recommendations for Action”
Ke Jing “The Establishment and Development of Language Programmes in China”
13.15-14.15: Lunch (sandwich and fruit)
14.15-15.30: Two parallel sessions
3. Language Education for Global Citizenship: Intercultural Interaction in Multilingual Settings
Paola Giorgis “Teaching and learning foreign languages in multicultural and plurilingual contexts: the
educational dilemma as a political dilemma”
Dr. Ben Rampton, Panayiota Charalambous and Constadina Charalambous “De-securitising Turkish:
intercultural education and a legacy of conflict”
Sharon Harvey “’French adds to its owner’s culture and general intelligence’. The politics of subject languages in
New Zealand schools: the first fifty years”
Jelena Ćalić, Dr. Lily Kahn, Tina Parte and Eszter Tarsoly “Contact between languages and learners: exploring
language and cultural contact through cooperative learning”
4. The impact of multilingual environments on language teaching: ideology, practice, and policy
Petteri Laihonen “Language Ideologies and Schoolscapes in Hungarian Medium Schools beyond Hungary
Marta Jenkala “’Learn from others what you can, but don’t ever shun your own’ (Taras Shevchenko): The case of
Ukrainian”
Ágoston Berecz “The politics of early language teaching: Hungarian in the primary schools of the late Dual
Monarchy”
Zsuzsa Varga “Teaching and Learning Languages in Pest-Buda in the early 19th century: education in a multiethnic city”
15.30-15.45: Break (coffee and biscuits)
15.45-16.45: Two parallel sessions
5. Language and Identity: Learners’ Perceptions of Subject Languages
Mike Orr and Samer A. Annous “Language, identity and the medium of instruction in Lebanon”
Enikő Bíró “The individual within languages -- the impact of language learners’ beliefs and the politics of
teaching and learning languages in Romania on the individual learner”
Terrence G. Wiley & Na Liu “Learner Perspectives on English Language Policy and Practice in China”
6. Teachers’ Education and the Native v. Non-native teachers Debate
Biljana Radić-Bojanić “English Language Teachers’ Education in Serbia: Paradoxes and Perspectives”
Andrea Ágnes Reményi “What is a non-native language teacher worth? Interview-based identity construction of
Hungarian teachers of English”
17.00-18.00: Storytelling session
Closing remarks of the first day
Information on publishing opportunities
18.30-20.30: Evening reception THE PRINT ROOM CAFÉ
Friday 18 September
10.00-11.00: Third key-note address;
Nicholas Ostler “The Wonder of Foreign Languages: Why are They Still Here?”
Further information on publishing opportunities;
11.00-11.30 INALCO Panel;
11.30-11.45: Break (coffee and biscuits)
11.45-13.00: Two parallel sessions
7. Language Ideologies: the Representation and Perception of Languages and Method in Education
Polina Kliuchnikova “Teaching Russian in the North-East England: To whom it many concern?”
Takako Kawabata “The tradition of the yakudoku method in ELT in Japan and the language ideologies underlying
Japanese language education”
Milena Stajić “’We’ve employed you to teach Bosnian, why are you using a textbook for Serbian Language?’
Challenges of a language teacher employed by an agency to deliver a Bosnian course to an MOD
member of staff”
Sonja Novak Lukanovič and Terrence G. Wiley “Learner Perspectives on the Co-existence of English, Slovene,
and Minority Languages in Slovenia”
8. Language Teaching Resources as Forms of Cultural Representation
Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi “Representations of Finland and Finns in Finnish language textbooks”
Dr. Virginia P. Zickafoose “Piotr and a Boy Named Marky Mark: Sources and Resources for Learning and
Teaching English in Post-communist Poland”
Saw Thanda Swe “Teachers’ experiences and their perspectives on teaching cultural elements through course
books”
13.00-14.00: Lunch (sandwich and fruit)
14.00-15.00: Two parallel sessions
9. Textbooks, Dictionaries, and Texts as Loci of Political and Cultural Translation
Elena Filimonova “Politics in teaching languages: Can a language teacher stay politically unbiased?”
Catherine Baker “The view from further down the corridor: other disciplines and the politics of (not) teaching
and learning languages”
Gwen Jones “Obsolete languages of the cold war”
10. Minority Language Education in the UK, Russia, and Kazakhstan
Radosław Budzyński “Teaching Polish as a second language in the post-Soviet area. Kazakhstan – a case study”
Zoumpalidis Dionysios “A Georgian teacher in a Russian school with a Georgian ethno-cultural component:
strategies and mismatches in language/culture preservation”
Edyta Nowosielska “The Politics of Teaching and Learning Languages. Polish in the UK – a case study”
15.00-15.15: Break (coffee and biscuits)
15.15-16.15: Two parallel sessions
11. Minority Language Education in a European context: Spain, Serbia and Moldova, Romania
Svetlana Pejnović “The Politics of Teaching and Learning Languages in Multi-lingual Vojvodina”
Joanna Duggan and Terrence G. Wiley “Politics, Language Policy, and Agency: A Case Study from CatalanSpeaking Spain”
Ksenija Djordjević – Léonard and Marijana Petrović “The minority language question in Serbia and in exYugoslavia today”
Csanád Bodó – Noémi Fazakas – János Imre Heltai “”Language revitalization from a different perspective: The
Moldavian Hungarian language teaching program
12. Teaching a Language Variety – a Variety for Teaching: Standards and the Assumed Homogeneity of
Language
John P. O’Regan “English as a lingua franca: fetishism and critique”
Daniel Abondolo “Politics, Linguistics and the Teaching of Latin: Twelve Remarks”
Amelia Abercrombie “Politics and purism in Romani language standardisation”
16.30-17.45: Plenary discussion panel and closing remarks;