International Symposium on Bilingualism

ISB14 will take place on 26-30 June 2023

Hosted by Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Hybrid Conference (Details TBC)

International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB) is a biennial conference on a wide range of issues concerning bi/multilingualism. Since its inaugural conference in 1997 at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, ISB has become the most significance conference in the field of bi/multilingualism. ISB has a strong focus on showcasing multidisciplinary research with a representation from a range of disciplines at every conference, including education, linguistics, neuroscience, psychology and sociology. The aim of ISB is to bring together bi/multilingualism researchers from all around the globe to advance the theoretical and applied research in bi/multilingualism, and to support bi/multilingualism practices in the community.

The conference theme of ISB14 is Diversity Now

The United Nations General Assembly has declared the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages to draw attention to the critical status of many Indigenous languages across the world and encourage action for their preservation, revitalisation, and promotion. As we move into this decade, ISB14 encourages work especially involving lesser studied bilingual communities and interdisciplinary work to tackle bilingualism across the life-span, cultures and societies.

Produced by Thomas Benson and Lee Murphy as part of the Macquarie University Professional and Community Engagement program

Australian Indigenous Languages day:

In service to the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, IBS14 will focus on collaborative work with Australian Indigenous communities on various Indigenous languages and issues. The Australian Indigenous Languages day will be chaired by Isabel O'Keeffe (National Acoustics Laboratory). Details on the special sessions throughout the day will be confirmed soon.


Keynotes:

  • Christos Pliatsikas, Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism, School of Psychological and Clinical Language Science, University of Reading

  • Ingrid Piller, Centre for Workforce Futures, Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University

  • Kevin Kien Hoa Chung, Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong

  • Kilian Seeber, Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, University of Geneva

  • Leher Singh, Department of Psychology, National University of Singapore

  • Ofelia Garcia, Urban Education and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, City University of New York

  • Sharynne McLeod, School of Education, Charles Sturt University


Workshops (details to be confirmed):

  • Home language maintenance: Sarah Verdon, Van H. Tran, Kate Margetson and Sharynne McLeod from Charles Sturt University

  • Multilingual speech assessment: Sharynne McLeod and Kate Margetson from Charles Sturt University

  • Interdisciplinary/Applied approaches to Interpreting and Translation: Jan-Louis Kruger and Marc Orlando from Macquarie University

  • Language on the Move: Ingrid Piller, Macquarie University

  • Next Generation Literacies network: Ingrid Gogolin and Silvia Melo-Pfeifer from Universität Hamburg, and Yongyan Zheng from Fudan University

Key Dates


For general inquiries about the conference please email the Organisational Committee at ISB14@mq.edu.au. For enquiries regarding the academic content of the proposals please email the ISB14 Scientific Committee via ISB14.ScientificCommittee@westernsydney.edu.au.