Language (of the) textbooks
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:
Textbooks’ linguistic level of mother tongue and second languages
- Textbook language and child language / textbook and early language learning
- Morphological, syntactic and lexical features of the textbook language
- Linguistic universals in textbooks (antonymy, synonymy, homonymy and polysemy)
- Standard language norm in textbooks
- Dialects and local speeches in textbooks
- Segments of spoken language in textbooks
- Stylistic level of the textbooks
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.)
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