Children and languages today

Dear ChiLa 2023 participants,

the deadline for Abstract submission has been extended to June 15, 2023.

Submission form

the 11th International Scientific Conference

CHILDREN AND LANGUAGES TODAY

Language (of the) textbooks

The Conference will be held on October 12 and 13, 2023 in Osijek, organized by the Department of Croatian Studies and the Department of English Studies of the Faculty of Education, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek.

By starting school, children’s communicative competence (the ability to produce clear, meaningful and comprehensible sentences)  continues to develop and is complemented by metalinguistic competence (knowledge of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the mother and second languages). Encouraging children’s language development in institutional learning is significantly influenced by the textbook, that is, the language used in the textbook. In order to fulfill the basic function of a book intended for a child to successfully learn and acquire knowledge, the textbook should support children’s language development. Previous research into the language  used textbooks has shown that the language of instruction is often not adapted to children’s psychophysical and linguistic development. Furthermore, the question arises as to what extent the language of the textbook is highly standardized at all language levels, in other words, whether there is a deviation from the standard language norms and whether it is there (un)consciously and for what purpose.

Therefore, the aim of the Children and Languages Today Conference, the central topic of which is the language of textbooks, is to bring together scientists who will complete the previous knowledge about the mother tongue and second language textbooks’ role, as well as textbooks as incentives for children’s language development. Given the challenges and motivation for different research and scientific approaches offered by the central theme, scientists of different profiles can contribute to the theme within the framework of the proposed sub-themes:

1.            Textbooks’ linguistic level of mother tongue and second languages

2.            Teaching methodology level of native and second language textbooks

Language of the subject textbooks and fundamental science

Teaching methodology principles for designing language textbooks

Contemporary teaching strategies and the concept of language textbooks

Texts in textbooks / Genre diversity of textbooks / Textbook and non-textbook texts

Language textbooks and students with disabilities / Adaptation of language textbooks to differences among students (disabled, gifted, blind, visually impaired, deaf, etc.)

3.            Literature, culture and identity in textbooks

Ethical and ideological characteristics of language textbooks (culture, civic values and political correctness)

Multiculturalism and interculturality in the language of textbooks / The role of language textbooks in a multilingual environment / Minority language textbooks / The influence of language policies on the language of textbooks

Multimedia level of language textbooks / Digital contents in language textbooks / Functions and effects of multimodality of language textbooks on learning

Due to numerous inquiries about the paper submission deadline for the 9th International Scientific Conference Children and Languages Today, we have decided to extend it until June 15, 2019. The central Conference theme is Children and linguistic identity. The Conference will be held from 12th to 14th June 2019 in Osijek. It is organized by the Department of philology, Faculty of Education, University of Osijek.
The publications from the last Conference will be presented at this year’s conference.

It is our honour to announce the confirmed plenary speakers, Prof. Marianne Nikolov, University of Pecs, and Prof. Anitka Skelin Horvat, University of Zagreb.