From Listening and Speaking to Reading and Writing
The conference will take place on November 28–29, 2025, and is organised by the Department of Croatian Studies and the Department of English and German Studies at the Faculty of Education, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek.
Language development is fundamental to successful and effective education as it enables the comprehension and mastery of academic content. Moreover, the development of language skills is closely tied to the growth of communicative competence – one of the key skills for lifelong learning. Since language acquisition and learning are deeply intertwined with cognitive, emotional, and social development, studying children’s speech, reading, and writing provides valuable insights into the cognitive, affective, and social mechanisms involved in learning, thinking, and problem-solving. Understanding these processes helps us deepen our insight into the dynamic nature of knowledge and skill development throughout childhood. We invite researchers to explore the topic of language skills in the context of contemporary trends in theoretical and applied linguistics and literature. We encourage contributions that will expand existing knowledge on children’s communicative competence.
The topic is both challenging and thought-provoking, inviting diverse research and scientific approaches. We encourage participants to explore linguistic activities within the suggested subtopics:
- Language skills and communicative competence
- Language skills and different aspects of linguistic knowledge
- Language skills and individual differences in children
- Language skills in various social contexts:
a) wider social and cultural environment (traditional and digital media, children’s literature, multimodality, language policy in education, linguistic landscapes, etc.)
b) educational environment (teaching methods and approaches, assessment of student achievements in formal education)
c) family environment (parental education, socio-economic status, attitudes toward language learning, academic socialization, etc.) - Interplay of language skills and cross-linguistic influences
Please submit your registration, an abstract of up to 300 words, and up to five keywords in both Croatian and English by September 1, 2025, to dijeteijezik@gmail.com.
Notification of abstract acceptance will be sent by September 20, 2025.
The official languages of the conference are Croatian and English.
We look forward to meeting in Osijek.
Ivana Trtanj, chair of Programme committee
Vedrana Živković Zebec, chair of Organizing committee