CASLA 2008

CASLA 2008
Cognitive Approaches to Second Language Acquisition
Dates	Mar 10, 2008 (iCal) - Mar 13, 2008
Homepage:	linguistlist.org/callconf/browse-conf-action.cfm?ConfID=55144
Location
Location:	University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Ge
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Important dates
Submissions:	Sep 1, 2007
Table of Contents

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32nd International LAUD Symposium 

Call deadline: 
September 1, 2007 

Plenary speakers (confirmed): 

Melissa Bowerman 
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 

Nick Ellis 
University of Michigan, USA 

Susan Gass 
Michigan State University, USA 

Jeannette Littlemore 
University of Birmingham, UK 

Peter Robinson 
Aoyama Gakuin University, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan 

John Taylor 
University of Otago, New Zealand 

Andrea Tyler 
Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA 

The psycholinguistic and cognitive processes underlying the learning of a 
foreign or second language have always been a subject of major interest to 
both (i) Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers and (ii) 
practitioners involved in language pedagogy, i.e. Foreign Language Learning 
(FLL). Most SLA theories have thus far assumed a top-down operation from 
Universal Grammar to L1 and L2 grammars. Just as for first language 
acquisition, it is assumed that, given sufficient input, a second language 
system develops in the mind automatically. The L2 input is said to trigger 
the language acquisition device, which is seen to operate quite 
autonomously, that is, independently from and without any interaction with 
other cognitive abilities or faculties such as bodily experiences, image 
schemas, perception, attention, categorization, emotion, or still other 
mental faculties. 

The Symposium takes a radically opposing view in the sense that language 
acquisition and learning can, like all human learning processes, only be 
understood and explained if they are seen as bottom-up, exemplar-based and 
usage-oriented processes. These can and have to be accommodated in a much 
broader framework of how people interact with the world around them, store 
and acquire knowledge in some symbolic form or other, and thus establish a 
link between cognitive development and language acquisition. 
The Symposium will explore the even more complex process of L2 learning and 
acquisition from three different inroads: 

(i) the cognitive theoretical foundations of language and learning, 
(ii) the specific acquisition procedures followed by language learners, and 
(iii) the rational pedagogic strategies required to facilitate and speed up 
the acquisition and learning processes seen from the perspective of the 
cognitive linguistics enterprise. 
These will be explored in the following three theme sessions: 

Theme Session 1: 
Cognition and language: Theoretical frameworks and models 
The first session examines the theoretical foundations of language, 
language acquisition and language learning. A number of theories have 
emerged from empirical research findings on second language learning and 
language instruction. 
In particular, we invite abstracts on the following topics: 

- General: Second language acquisition theories and cognition 
- Comparing and contrasting cognition in first and second language acquisition 
- The relevance of conceptual knowledge for L2 learning and teaching 
- Corpus linguistics, cognition and language pedagogy 
- The nature and sequence of the form-meaning pairing 
- Cognitive grammar and SLA 
- Neuro-cognitive issues of language acquisition 
- Process-oriented instruction of second languages by children and adults 

Theme session 2: 
The mental processes and acquisition procedures involved in SLA: 
Case studies and empirical findings 
A second goal of the symposium is to empirically investigate the mental 
processes of language learners within the acquisition process such as the 
role of attention as one of the basic explanations of language learning. 
In particular, we invite abstracts on the following topics: 

- Explicit learning, attention and awareness in SLA research 
- Language awareness and motivation in FLT 
- Cognition and interlanguage at all linguistic levels (phonological, 
morpho-syntactic, lexical, constructional, pragmatic) 
- The mental process of interlanguage development in SLA 
- Interaction of gesture and speech in the development of metaphorical 
understanding 
- Formulaic language as the cornerstone of natural SLA 
- Constructions infants and L2 learners live by 

Session 3: 
Cognitive language pedagogy: Pedagogical grammar, lexical expansion, 
cultural fluency 
The third and main theme of the symposium centers around the theoretical 
model of cognitive linguistics, which represents a valid framework within 
which FLL research may take place. Various implications for pedagogically 
oriented research and for SL classroom practice will be discussed. The 
contextual facets of CL including the social, cultural, and discourse 
ingredients of language can be exploited for a communicative and 
usage-based approach to language teaching in the classroom. 'Applied 
Cognitive Linguistics', therefore, investigates the links between the 
theoretical views of CL and their relevance for applications in the areas 
of language acquisition, learning and pedagogy. 
The specific goal here is to discuss the didactic potential field of CL in 
the teaching and learning of second and/or foreign languages. 
In particular, we invite abstracts on the following topics: 

- The relevance of dynamic usage-based models in language acquisition 
- Corpus-data in a usage-based cognitive grammar 
- The acquisition-learning debate in the light of CL findings 
- Culture-specific conceptualizations in an FLT context 
- Figurative thinking and SLA 
- Cognition and pragmatic development in a second language syllabus 
- Cognitive-didactic approaches to the English verb phrase (TMA-system) 
- Iconicity, construal and prototypicality in Pedagogical Grammars 
- The issue of 'rules' from a cognitive-linguistics perspective 
- Idiom and metaphor in lexical expansion and creativity 
- From the internet corpus to usable learning materials; 
- From classroom experiments to large-scale experimentation 

Conference Fees 
The conference fee is EUR 75 payable on arrival. 

Abstracts 
Deadline of submission 
September 1, 2007 
Submissions are solicited for theme session presentations which should last 
for 20-25 minutes with 5-10 minutes for questions (maximum 30 minutes total) 
All submissions for presentations should follow the abstract guidelines below. 

Abstracts of no more than 500 words (about one page) 
should be submitted via email to 
Martin Pütz 

The abstracts will be subject to anonymous peer-review. 
Please include the following information in the subject header of your email: 
Abstract LAUD 2008 - name/s - 

Please include the following information in the main body of your email: 
name of author/s, affiliation, email address, presentation title. 

Please also state for which of the 3 theme sessions 
of the symposium your contribution is intended: 

Theme Session 1: 
Cognition and language: Theoretical frameworks and models 

Theme Session 2: 
The mental processes and acquisition procedures involved in SLA: 
Case studies and empirical findings 

Theme Session 3: 
Cognitive language pedagogy: Pedagogical grammar, lexical expansion, 
cultural fluency 

Notification of acceptance will be given by September 15, 2007. 
A first draft version of your paper should be submitted by November 1, 
2007, which will be reviewed and, if accepted, pre-published by LAUD and 
distributed to all participants before March 2008. 
Selected papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings. 

More information on the city of Landau (1 hour by car south of 
Frankfurt/Main and very close to the Alsatian border, France): 
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz (pop. 41,821) is an autonomous (kreisfrei) 
city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstra�?e (''southern wineroute'') 
district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town 
(since 1990), a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping 
town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the Palatinate 
wine region. Landau lies east of the Pfälzer Wald, Europe's largest 
contiguous forest (quoted from Wikipedia) 

For more information on LAUD 
(e.g. LAUD Symposium 2006, history, past symposia, conference proceedings 
etc.) 
click here www.uni-landau.de/anglistik/LAUD/index.htm 
Local Conference Organizer 
Martin Pütz 
Puetz@uni-landau.de 
University of Koblenz-Landau 
Landau Campus 
FB 6 Institut für Fremdsprachliche Philologien 
Fach Anglistik 
Marktstr. 40 
D -76829 Landau/Pf. 
PH: 06341-146-204 
Fax: 06341-146-200 

Organising committee members: 
Sabine De Knop, René Dirven, Susanne Niemeier, 
Martin Pütz, Monika Reif, Ulrich Schmitz, 
Laura Sicola 
	

This CfP was obtained from WikiCFP