Call for Papers and Projects
25th Annual FOCUS Graduate Student Conference at the University of Cincinnati, Department of German StudiesOctober 15 – 16, 2021
Speaking Identity – Identity in Second Language Studies
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Christine Mallinson; University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Second Language pedagogy needs further explorations. How, for example, do we teach gender neutral language for languages in which standardized options do not yet exist? Similarly, how do we teach certain linguistic forms (e.g. word order in German subordinate clauses or “double negatives” in English) associated with linguistic discrimination without replicating and reinforcing this linguistic discrimination?
The 25th Annual FOCUS Graduate Student Conference pursues to address the effects of the muddled terrain of poststructuralist linguistic identities on Second Language pedagogy. We seek to foster a dialogue between sociolinguistic theory and language teaching/learning realities.
Themes may include but are not limited to:- Social and regional origin, gender, religion, generation, social groups, migration,
- multilingualism, and language change and their influence on language, etc.
- Heterogeneity vs. homogeneity in the classroom
- Subjective factors of language attitudes and language ideologies
- Intersections between language and critical race theory, e.g. raciolinguistics, linguistic
- profiling
- Queer theory and queer linguistics
- Influences of sociolinguistics on education and language pedagogy
- Critical approaches to teaching with technology
- Varieties of language – Youth language; computer-mediated communication; spoken
- colloquial language
- Problematic aspects of contemporary applied linguistics research in which identity is a key construct
languages) but also welcome contributions from other disciplines. Submissions in German or English are welcome.
Current Graduate Students are invited to submit abstracts or project descriptions (250-300 words in length), accompanied by a short bio, to Mareike Lange and Barbara Besendorfer at UCGerman@uc.edu by May 15th, 2021. Please use the subject “Focus 25”.
Given the ongoing uncertainties, we will offer a hybrid model (Zoom or in person) for the conference. We would like to ask you to please indicate whether you preliminarily plan to attend in-person.