A MESSAGE FROM PROFESSOR KATHI BAILEY

Dear RiLE colleagues

I am writing to ask for your help in publicizing an interesting conference opportunity that will happen quite soon – on Feb. 5, 11, and 12. The event will be hosted entirely online, in hopes that people all over the world can attend.

The conference is the Symposium on World Language Education (SOWLE), which is hosted by my school – the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). This year’s conference theme is “Promoting Equity and Leadership in the Language Classroom.”

The conference sessions are scheduled for 3 PM to 8:30 PM on Saturday, Feb. 5, 10 AM to noon on Friday, Feb. 11, and 8 AM to 1:30 PM on Saturday, Feb. 12. (All times are given in Pacific Standard Time.)

The opening keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Andy Curtis on Saturday, Feb. 5. His topic is “The New Peace Linguistics and the Role of Language in Context.”

The closing keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Shondel Nero on Saturday, Feb. 12. The title of her talk is “Decolonizing World Language Education in the 21st Century.”

On Friday, Feb. 11, there will be a panel presentation entitled “Ecology in Language Learning: Identifying Equitable Opportunities.” The panelists are Dr. Steve Thorne, Dr. Julie Sykes, Dr. Dongping Zheng, and Dr. Glenn Levine. The panel has been planned, in part, to honor the memory of Dr. Leo van Lier, a professor at MIIS who influenced language teaching and applied linguistics research.

The entire program can be found by clicking here or by pasting this URL into your browser:

https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/sites/www.middlebury.edu.institute/files/2022-01/SOWLE2022-ProgramOutline-1.19.pdf?fv=vk1bkiOi

Registration for students is free. Proceeds from the nominal registration fee for non-students will be used to support the Leo van Lier Speaker Series at MIIS.

Online registration process can be found by clicking here or by pasting this URL into your browser:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-symposium-on-world-languages-education-sowle-tickets-238593969987

If you have any questions, you may write to contact.sowle@gmail.com or email me directly.

Best wishes,

Kathi Bailey

PS: I am told that people who register for the conference need to have the SOWLE address in their safe senders list; otherwise they risk follow-up announcements going to spam or not getting delivered.