The International Conference Beyond English: Multilingualism in Contemporary Europe [link no longer active] will be organised by Polonia University, Częstochowa (Poland). As hinted by the conference title:
The conference focuses on multilingualism in contemporary Europe and the role of English as the global language. However, its aim is to show that, even though English is the world language, learners should not limit themselves to it because multilingualism is also present in many contexts.
Call for papers
Proposals are invited for 20-minute papers (followed by a 10-minute discussion). There are plans for publishing an edited collection of papers presented in the conference.
Papers are invited on topics including, but not limited to:
- The influence of English as L2 on various L3s
- English as an obstacle or a stepping stone to multilingualism
- Intercomprehension, language typology, English as a possible source of positive transfer
- The language policies of the European Union and of particular European countries, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
- Linguistic imperialism
- The practical significance of languages other than English
- Language ecology
- Code-switching and its sociolinguistic significance
- English as a lingua franca vs. other languages in international contacts
- Multilingualism on the Internet and in the media
- Multilingualism in literature
- Multilingual language biographies
Abstracts (300-400 words) should be by e-mailed to both the following addresses: teresamaria[at]poczta.onet[dot]pl and melomane.plurilingue[at]gmail[dot]com.
Registration
The conference fee is 300 zlotys for Polish participants and 100 euros for participants from outside Poland. A 50 zlotys (12 euros) surcharge applies for participation in the conference banquet.
A registration form is available for download, and sent to teresamaria[at]poczta.onet[dot]pl. The document also contains information about fee payment.
Important Dates
| Deadline for the submission of abstracts | 15 March 2014 |
| Notification of acceptance | 31 March 2014 |
| Registration & payment deadline | 20 April 2014 |
| Conference | 14 May 2014 |
| Article submission deadline | 15 July 2014 |
Image Credit: “Writing” by omcoc @ flickr | CC BY-NC-SA