24-25 May, 2019
Kaunas, Lithuania

The conference aims at bringing together scholars and language education professionals to share their research insights and discuss the issues relevant to the development of individual and societal multilingualism, including language policy, linguistic human rights, plurilingual pedagogy and language education in higher education.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

	Prof. James Patrick Cummins (University of Toronto, ON, Canada) has been a driving force behind bilingual and plurilingual education for the past four decades. His research has laid the foundation for the understanding of language as a cognitive development rather than a behavior. He found that being bilingual improves classroom learning and that first language provides a sturdy foundation for second-language acquisition. Through his research, Professor Cummins identified two types of language, basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). He has co-authored several books on literacies in education and has seen his work translated into Japanese and Spanish. Professor Cummins has won a number of international academic awards and holds a number of editorial positions with various psychology journals.
	Prof. Egidijus Aleksandravičius (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) is a historian, a habilitated doctor of humanities, a professor at the Department of History of Vytautas Magnus University, a publicist, an active statesman and a well-known public intellectual. He holds the positions of the head of Academia cum laude, an embodiment of VMU artes liberales principles in research and studies, and the director of Lithuanian emigration institute. Professor Aleksandravičius is also the president of the National Committee of the History of Lithuania, the chairman of the Board of the Open Lithuanian Foundation, a member of the Board of the World Lithuanian teachers’ Association as well as a member of the Lithuanian Historical Society and the Samogitian Cultural Society. His research interests include history of the 19th century Lithuanian culture, historiography and history of Lithuanian emigration. He is the author of twenty books and more than a hundred articles published in Lithuanian and foreign scientific journals. He has academic experience not only in Lithuania but also in the USA and Finland.
	Prof. Britta Hufeisen (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany) is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies. Her primary research interests are multilingualism and multiple language learning, L3-text competency, and multilingual whole school policy. Recent publications include a 2015 volume on research projects on multilingual whole school policies in Europe and 2015 second edition of EuroComGerm – European Intercomprehension. She was Adjunct Professor at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta, Canada.

WORKSHOP

Prof. Mercè Bernaus Queralt (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) is a pre-service and in-service teacher trainer at national and international level for various organisations such as an NGO Learn to Change, Change to Learn. Her main activities involve lectures and practicum tutorials. Professor Bernaus has extensive expertise in plurilingualim and pluriculturalism, project-based learning, multilingual and intercultural education, education for democratic citizenship, inclusion, values and attitudes in education, action research and other fields of education. She has coordinated plurilingualism/culturalism projects at the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) such as ConBaT+ and Language Educator Awareness (LEA) as well as engaged in ECML Training and Consultancy programmes for member states where she delivered workshops such as ‘Supporting Multilingual Classrooms’. From 2007 to 2017 professor was involved in the Pestalozzi programmes for education professionals of the Council of Europe as a trainer. She has conducted studies on attitudes, motivation, language learning and published her research in international journals: The Modern Language Journal, International Journal of Multilingualism and Foreign Language Annals.

CONFERENCE TOPICS

Submissions are welcome in (not limited to) the following areas:

• Language policy
• Less widely taught languages
• Issues in minority language education
• Language teaching methodology in multilingual and multicultural environment
• Cultural challenges
• Challenges for Identity
• Multilingualism for business and in business
• Multilingualism and educational mobility
• Non-formal and informal development of plurilingual competence
• Innovations in language education
• Content and Language Integrated Learning
• Plurilingual pedagogies and language sensitive teaching
• Literature and multilingualism
• Issues in translation in multilingual environment

5 REASONS TO ATTEND OUR CONFERENCE

1. Meet in person world-known researchers in linguistic human rights and outstanding language policy researchers and developers
2. Share your research insights within international community
3. Discuss current issues of multilingualism with members of international community
4. Strengthen the existing and establish new partnerships in the international research and education community
5. Visit Lithuania – one of the three Baltic states, the country where the oldest surviving Indo-European language is spoken

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS & REGISTRATION

You are invited to contribute and submit your abstracts in both formats:

• In person: oral or poster presentations.
• Virtually: if you cannot attend in person.

Registration and abstract submission open:

1 November, 2018

Deadline for registration and abstract submission:

1 February, 2019.

Notification of acceptance: 18 February, 2019.

CONFERENCE FEES

Participation fee (conference packet, coffee-breaks, free Wi-Fi):

• Early payment:  19 February – 18 March 2019 – 80 €
• Standard payment: 19 March – 18 May 2019 – 100 €
• Late payment: 19 May – 23 May 2019 – 120 €
• Fee for virtual presentation (without attending the conference in person): 60 €
• Fee for attending the conference without presentation: 30 €
• Members of Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania and Students: 50% discount
• Social programme: 60 € (Kaunas sightseeing tour – 15€, reception dinner – 45€)

Participation fee shall be transferred to VMU account:

BANK NAME: AB SEB bank

SWIFT Code: CBVILT2X

ACCOUNT NUMBER:

LT04 7044 0600 0284 8625

PURPOSE OF PAYMENT:  SM 2019 Conference fee

PUBLICATIONS

All abstracts will be published in an online book of abstracts with an ISBN number.

The selected papers will be published in the international scientific journal Sustainable Multilingualism (www.uki.vdu.lt/sm), indexed in MLA.

Since 2017, Sustainable Multilingualism is published by SCIENDO (former De Gryuter Open).

Print copy: ISSN 2335-2019 Online copy: ISSN 2335-2027

Journal website:  http://uki.vdu.lt/sm

Authors of accepted conference contributions may submit their full papers to be considered for publication in the 15th issue of Sustainable Multilingualism, November 2019.  Deadline for manuscript submissions is 1 July, 2019.

Conference email: uki@vdu.lt

Conference Facebook: VMU Sustainable Multilingualism

CHAIR OF THE CONFERENCE

Prof. dr. Nemira Mačianskienė

Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania;
Professor at the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL), Vytautas Magnus University (VMU)

Sustainable Multilingualism (uki.vdu.lt/sm), Editor in Chief

Chair of Sustainable Multilingualism Conferences since 2011

Linkedin: https://lt.linkedin.com/in/nemira-ma%C4%8Dianskien%C4%97-8363aa62

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0412-9584

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

• Anne-Marie Barrault-Méthy, University of Bordeaux, France
• Vilma Bijeikienė, Vytautas Magnus University
• Beatrice Boufoy-Bastick, West Indies University, Trinidad and Tobago
• Servet Çelik, Trabzon University, Turkey
• Manuel Célio Conceição, University of Algarve, Portugal
• Aurelija Daukšaitė, Vytautas Magnus University
• Roma Kriaučiūnienė, Vilnius University, LKPA, Lithuania
• Ulrike Kurth, Westfalen-Kolleg Paderborn, Germany
• Michael Lönz, Ruhr-Kolleg Essen, Germany
• Nemira Mačianskienė, Vytautas Magnus University
• Manfred Malzahn, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates
• Javier Martos Ramos, University of Sevilla, Spain
• Alida Samusevica, Liepaja University, Latvia

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Vytautas Magnus University:

• Jūratė Andriuškevičienė
• Jovita Daukšytė
• Gintarė Gelūnaitė-Malinauskienė
• Aušra Jankauskaitė
• Daina Kazlauskaitė
• Vitalija Lanza
• Sigitas Lūžys
• Almantė Meškauskienė
• Daiva Pundziuvienė
• Martynas Prūsaitis
• Rima Sabaliauskienė
• Jurgita Šerniūtė
• Žieda Tamašauskaitė
• Vigilija Žiūraitė

CONFERENCE ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT GROUP

• Jurgita Šerniūtė – administrator; jurgita.serniute@vdu.lt (contact in English)
• Gintarė Gelūnaitė-Malinauskienė – administrator; gintare.gelunaite-malinauskiene@vdu.lt (contact in German)
• Almantė Meškauskienė – deputy director; almante.meskauskiene@vdu.lt (contact in Russian)
• Vilma Bijeikienė – director; vilma.bijeikiene@vdu.lt (contact in English, Russian, German)
• Nemira Mačianskienė – chair of the conference; nemira.macianskiene@vdu.lt (contact in English, Russian)
• Rima Sabaliauskienė – lecturer; rima.sabaliauskiene@vdu.lt (contact in Spanish)
• Martynas Prūsaitis – IT specialist; martynas.prusaitis@vdu.lt (contact in Lithuanian)