Exploring Language Education

This conference is the fourth in the Exploring Language Education (ELE) conference series, with previous editions in Stockholm, Oslo and Vasa. The ELE conferences are held every three years in changing locations. The ELE conferences employ a broad definition of language education, aiming to bring together scholars working in different areas of the field. The conferences are intended to reflect a variety of perspectives on language education (in terms of first and additional languages) with learners of all ages.

The theme of the 4th ELE conference is Sustainable Language Education, and we particularly welcome papers, posters and proposals for symposia related to this theme from scholars from around the world. In recent years, we have witnessed conflicting tendencies regarding language education pointing to both development and crisis: From the multilingual turn within language teaching research, attesting a rising awareness of students’ rich and complex linguistic repertoires, through the introduction of accessible AI in society and schools, to the deep motivation crisis for learning languages other than English. All of these trends reveal the need to rethink language education in the light of our present world and consider the question: What is sustainable language education today?

We invite scholars to participate in the conference with contributions relating to:

• Sustainable learning, teaching and assessment in the current context
• Sustaining languages other than English (LOTE) in the educational system
• Sustaining minority languages in the educational system
• Sustaining students’ motivation and engagement
• Sustainable language education in the face of AI
• Holistic and complexity-oriented approaches to language education

The language of the conference is English.