Call for Papers

“Teaching, learning, living - language centres navigating new realities” is the title of the conference for teachers, researchers and students held at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum from 12-14 March 2025.

The world in which students and teachers live is constantly changing: climate change, new immigration patterns, demographic trends, geopolitical conflicts, technological changes and the accompanying rapid dynamisation of knowledge are increasingly shaping the working environment in higher education. Universities in general, and foreign language centres in particular, are called upon to respond to these new realities.

How do we deal with the increasing (super)diversity and heterogeneity of our language learners? How can we ensure an inclusive and non-discriminatory learning environment? How can we foster the potential of linguistic and cultural diversity? How do we create a culture of learning for a greater sense of self-determination and empowerment? How do we operationalise sustainability in the language classroom and beyond? How do we operate in a world of rapidly expanding AI systems? How do we respond to geopolitical tensions affecting our international collaborations and audiences? What cutting edge training is needed to better prepare teachers to meet all these challenges?

Ten conference strands provide a platform for exploring the contemporary challenges in language teaching which are linked to these new realities and for discussing ways of addressing them in a sustainable and innovative way. In the spirit of Albert Einstein, who once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”, we would like to discuss innovative and sustainable solutions in the following strands:

1. Language centres and (higher education) policy changes

2. Recognising and implementing diversity

3. Cutting edge professional development for language teachers

4. Using AI in a meaningful and responsible way

5. Supporting, assessing and certifying the development of language skills

6. Fostering sustainable work and learning

7. Indentifying, embracing and encouraging multilingualism

8. Unlocking new target groups and spheres of application

9. Enabling, implementing and supporting self-directed learning

10. Establishing panlinguistic perspectives on academic language

The conference organisers are inviting proposals for contributions (talks, workshops and posters) related to the conference themes and are looking forward to many stimulating discussions about teaching, learning and living in the face of contemporary challenges. The descriptions of all respective conference strands with particular issues they are aiming to address will appear on the conference website soon.

Presentation formats within conference strands:

A talk (25 minutes followed by a 10-minute discussion)
A workshop (40 or 80 minutes; please indicate the length of the workshop when submitting the proposal)
A moderated discussion (40 minutes)

Presentation formats outside the conference strands:

A workshop (60 minutes)
A poster presentation

Meetings of AKS working groups and networking groups:

As a part of the conference, 60-minute meetings of AKS working groups and networks can be organised. Please contact the organisers via email at aks2025@rub.de to confirm the details of such a session.

Language of presentations:

English
German
Other languages are welcome and possible in consultation with the conference organisers.

Submission deadline:

Presentation proposals (abstracts of up to 250 words) can be submitted via conference website www.aks2025.de between 1 September and 20 October 2024. Authors of successful proposals will be notified about the acceptance by 1 December 2024.

Conference registration:

Registration to the conference opens on 1 September 2024. For fees and further registration details visit the conference website www.aks2025.de.