Sunday, June 08 2025.
DAY 0
| 17:00 - 19:30 | Registration |
Conference
Monday, June 09 2025.
DAY 1
Tuesday, June 10 2025.
DAY 2
| 09:00 - 10:00 | KEYNOTE 3 Chair: Marina Kalashnikova | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:05 - 11:35 | Poster Session & Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posters are grouped by their primary submission area, but many are interdisciplinary Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism
Neuroscience
Infant & Child Development
Phonetics & Phonology
Speech-Language Pathology Health Communication
Sociolinguistics
Indigenous & Minority Languages Education
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| 11:35 - 13:15 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 13:15 - 14:15 | Lunch Break (on your own) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14:15 - 15:00 | ISB Business Meeting (Room 2) / Documentary Screening: Bilingual education and (Trans)languaging for learning in the South (Room 1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15:00 - 16:40 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 16:40 - 17:10 | Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17:10 - 18:50 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wednesday, June 11 2025.
DAY 3
| 09:00 - 10:00 | KEYNOTE 4 Chair: Angela de Bruin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:05 - 11:35 | Poster Session & Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posters are grouped by their primary submission area, but many are interdisciplinary Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism
Neuroscience
Infant & Child Development
Phonetics & Phonology
Speech-Language Pathology
Sociolinguistics
Indigenous & Minority Languages
Education
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| 11:35 - 13:15 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 13:15 - 14:45 | Lunch Break (on your own) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14:45 - 15:35 | ECR Keynote 2 Chair: Zoe Nikolaidou | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15:45 - 17:25 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 17:25 - 17:55 | Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18:00 - 19:00 | KEYNOTE 5 Chair: Zhongfeng Tian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday, June 12 2025.
DAY 4
| 09:00 - 10:00 | KEYNOTE 6 Chair: Marie Lallier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:05 - 11:35 | Poster Session & Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posters are grouped by their primary submission area, but many are interdisciplinary Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism
Neuroscience
Infant & Child Development
Phonetics & Phonology
Speech-Language Pathology
Health Communication Sociolinguistics
Indigenous & Minority Languages
Education
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| 11:35 - 13:15 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 13:15 - 14:45 | Lunch Break (on your own) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14:45 - 16:25 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 16:25 - 16:55 | Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16:55 - 18:35 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 20:00 |
Aquarium Visit & Conference Dinner Only for attendees who have registered for the social event 1 Plaza de Carlos Blasco Imaz 20003 Donostia-San Sebastián | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday, June 13 2025.
DAY 5
| 09:00 - 10:00 | KEYNOTE 7 Chair: Li Wei | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:05 - 11:35 | Poster Session & Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posters are grouped by their primary submission area, but many are interdisciplinary Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Effects of Bilingualism
Neuroscience Infant & Child Development
Phonetics & Phonology
Speech-Language Pathology Sociolinguistics
Indigenous & Minority Languages
Education
Interpreting & Translation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11:35 - 13:15 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 13:15 - 15:35 | Lunch Break (on your own) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15:35 - 17:15 | Symposium and oral sessions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 17:15 - 17:45 | Coffee Break | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17:50 - 18:50 | KEYNOTE 8 Chair: Clara Martin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18:50 - 19:00 | Closing remarks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
June 09 2025.
Preliminary program
Preliminary program
A detailed version of the program with contributions assigned to time slots will be made available in late March/early April.
Monday, June 9
08:00 – 8:50 Registration
8:50 – 9:00 Welcome
9:00 – 10:00 Keynote 1
10:05 – 11:35 Posters & coffee break (90 min)
11:35 – 13:15 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
13:15 – 14:45 Lunch Break
14:45 – 15:35 ECR Keynote 1
15:45 – 17:25 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
17:25 – 17:55 Coffee break (30 min)
18:00 – 19:00 Keynote 2
Tuesday, June 10
9:00 – 10:00 Keynote 3
10:05 – 11:35 Posters & coffee break (90 min)
11:35 – 13:15 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
13:15 – 14:10 Lunch Break
14:10 – 15:10 ISB Business Meeting / Workshops
15:10 – 16:50 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
16:50 – 17:20 Coffee break (30 min)
17:20 – 19:00 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
Wednesday, June 11
9:00 – 10:00 Keynote 4
10:05 – 11:35 Posters & coffee break (90 min)
11:35 – 13:15 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
13:15 – 14:45 Lunch Break
14:45 – 15:35 ECR Keynote 2
15:45 – 17:25 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
17:25 – 17:55 Coffee break (30 min)
18:00 – 19:00 Keynote 5
Thursday, June 12
9:00 – 10:00 Keynote 6
10:05 – 11:35 Posters & coffee break (90 min)
11:35 – 13:15 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
13:15 – 14:45 Lunch Break
14:45 – 16:25 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
16:25 – 16:55 Coffee break (30 min)
16:55 – 18:35 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
20:00 Aquarium visit & conference dinner
Friday, June 13
9:00 – 10:00 Keynote 7
10:05 – 11:35 Posters & coffee break (90 min)
11:35 – 13:15 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
13:15 – 14:45 Lunch Break
14:45 – 15:35 ECR Keynote 3
15:45 – 17:25 Oral sessions (12 parallel) (100 min)
17:25 – 17:55 Coffee break (30 min)
18:00 – 19:00 Keynote 8
January 13 2023.
Venue and Accommodation
VENUE
ISB15 will take place at the Kursaal Congress Centre, which is very centrally located in San Sebastián.
ACCOMMODATION
Please notice that San Sebastian is one of the most popular and touristic cities of Northern Spain, so we recommend to book the hotel as soon as possible in order to avoid availability issues.
For accommodation options you can check the Accommodation official website of San Sebastián (https://www.sansebastianturismoa.eus/en/sleep/where-to-sleep), where you can find the full list of hotels, hostels, student hostels and also last minute offers.
We have secured discounts in this hotels for the upcoming conference:
Barceló Costa Vasca Hotel: See how far it is from the conference venue: Google Maps
- Code: ISB2025
- Stay dates: June 8–13, 2025
- Booking deadline: Code valid until May 9, 2025
- Discount: 5% off, combinable with any rate
- Payment and cancellation policies: As per the selected rate
- Room availability: Subject to availability at the time of booking
To make a reservation, please visit the Barceló Costa Vasca official website.
Hotel Tres Reyes: See how far it is from the conference venue:Google Maps
- Code: ISB15
- Stay dates: June 8–13, 2025
- Discount: 15% off.
- Payment and cancellation policies: As per the selected rate
- Room availability: Subject to availability at the time of booking
To make a reservation, please visit the Hotel Tres Reyes San Sebastian official website.
The Social Hub San Sebastián: See how far it is from the conference venue: Google Maps
- Code: ISB25
- Discount: 15% off.
- Stay dates: June 8-14, 2025
- Payment and cancellation policies: As per the selected rate
- Room availability: Subject to availability at the time of booking
To make a reservation, please visit the Hotel The social HUB San Sebastian
Zenit Convento San Martín and Zenit San Sebastián
- Code: ISB10
- Discount: 10% off.
- Stay dates: June 8-14, 2025
- Booking deadline: Code valid until May 26, 2025
- Payment and cancellation policies: As per the selected rate
- Room availability: Subject to availability at the time of booking
To make a reservation, please visit the Hotel Zenit San Sebastian web and Hotel Zenit Convento San Martin
ARIMA Hotel & Spa and NUMAD Studios: See how far it is from the conference venue: Google Maps
- Code: ISB2025
- Stay dates: June 8–13, 2025
- Discount:15% off
- Payment and cancellation policies: As per the selected rate
- Room availability: Subject to availability at the time of booking
To make a reservation, please visit the: ARIMA Hotel & Spa: https://arimahotel.com/en/ and NUMAD Studios: https://numadstudios.com/en/studios/
COLECTIVA URUMEA HOTEL. See how far it is from the conference venue: Google Maps
- Code: ISB2025
- Stay dates: June 8–13, 2025
- Discount:10% off
- Booking deadline: Code valid until May 8, 2025.
- Payment and cancellation policies: As per the selected rate
- Room availability: Subject to availability at the time of booking
- To make a reservation: https://colectia.com/alojamientos/hotel-urumea
HOW TO GET HERE
Its strategic situation and the fact that it's well provided with infrastructures have made San Sebastian an easily accessible place, connected by every kind of transport to the rest of the world. Choose the one that suits you best and begin your journey to San Sebastian!
GETTING TO SAN SEBASTIAN BY PLANE
Within a radius of barely 100 kilometres San Sebastian lays claim to 5 airports, 3 of them international.
San Sebastian lays claim to one airport 20 minutes from the city centre. It has a shuttle service to the main Spanish cities: Madrid and Barcelona.
Not far away are the airports of Bilbao, connected to the whole of Europe; and Biarritz, served by French, international and low-cost airlines.
San Sebastian Airport (EAS) - 20 kms.
Bilbao Airport (BIO) - 105 kms.
Vitoria-Gasteiz Airport (VIT) - 120 kms.
Pamplona Airport (PNA) - 90 kms.
Biarritz Airport (BIQ) - 40 kms.
www.aena.es
www.biarritz.aeroport.fr
Shuttle service Bilbao Airport <> San Sebastián
Shuttle service San Sebastian airport <> city centre
GETTING TO SAN SEBASTIAN BY TRAIN
Situated right in the centre of the city, San Sebastian's train station, known as the Estación del Norte (Northern Station), is connected to a large number of Spanish cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, and also international destinations, such as Paris and Lisbon.
Getting to and from San Sebastian by train is going to be much quicker thanks to the new High-Speed Train, which will connect the city with numerous destinations in the near future.
There is also a narrow-gauge railway that runs to Bilbao and different Basque coastal towns such as Zarautz, plus a line on which a train called the "Topo" runs to Hendaye in France.
http://www.renfe.es
http://www.euskotren.es
http://www.sncf.com
CAR PARKS
Getting to San Sebastian by car is very simple. The city is connected to the rest of Spain and to France by National Road N1/AP1 (Madrid-Irún), the A-8 (Bilbao-Irún) and A-63 (Paris-Irún) motorways, and the A-15 trunk road (Pamplona-San Sebastian).
Nearly all areas of the city can be accessed on one of these highways.
If you come to San Sebastian by car, there are more than 6,000 parking places available to you at different points in the city.
PARKING FOR MOTORHOME
20 parking places approximately.
Marks between parking places.
Lighting.
Water outlet.
Waste disposal area.
Motorhome parking rules:
It is allowed to park but not to camp.
Using awning is not allowed.
Tables and chairs are not allowed in the parking area.
Wedges are allowed.
Please respect the neighbourhood.
GETTING TO SAN SEBASTIAN BY BUS
San Sebastian has a sizeable bus station that connects the city with others throughout Spain and part of the European continent.
Main bus lines companies from San Sebastian:
Eurolines
Alsa
Vibasa
Pesa
External travel support
The ISB15 Organizing Committee prepared this overview of external travel support options. Please share your additions with isb2025@bcbl.eu. The overview will be updated regularly.
Bio
Ander Beristain (Ph.D. 2022, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Saint Louis University (USA), where he is also involved with the College of Arts and Sciences’ Prison Education Program. He is a first-generation scholar whose research addresses phonological and phonetic questions from a second and heritage language acquisition perspective, utilizing both articulatory and acoustic approaches alongside advanced statistical methods. His work focuses primarily on Basque and Spanish, with an emphasis on documenting and giving visibility to minoritized speakers, languages, or varieties.
In the early stages of his career, Dr. Beristain has co-authored an edited volume, released a phonological dictionary of his native Basque variety, and published multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His scholarship has appeared in journals such as Language and Speech, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, The Journal of the International Phonetic Association, and in volumes by Oxford University Press, De Gruyter, or UPV/EHU Press. In recognition of his scholarly achievements as an early-career researcher, he has been awarded the 2025 Linguistic Society of America’s Morris Halle Memorial Award for Faculty Excellence in Phonology.
Diversifying articulatory phonetics through a bilingual and migrant lens: A look towards the future
The overarching goal of this talk is to examine whether articulatory accommodation is possible at the physiological level in bilingual and migrant environments to further comprehend the evolution of dialectal features over time in relation to language contact. While phonetics and phonology studies have predominantly implemented acoustic approaches, articulatory research constitutes a minority, often using small sample sizes and targeting first language production in laboratory settings. This narrow perspective overlooks the influence of bilingualism and ‘non-traditional’ speakers on articulatory theories. This presentation will bridge this gap by presenting cutting-edge aerodynamic studies on nasalization, particularly in bilingual and migration contexts in North America and Europe. Furthermore, methodological recommendations for engaging with underserved populations will be proposed, thus contextualizing academic work within culturally responsive practices and putting forward a framework for future research.
The first study investigates coarticulatory vowel nasalization in heritage, early, and late Spanish/English bilingual speakers in the United States, including data from 42 participants. The second study presents novel data on the nasalization of the glottal fricative [h] consonant in Spanish, based on 30 participants consisting of long-term migrants from Extremadura (Spain) in the Basque Country, as well as two subsequent generations and control groups. Results suggest that early language exposure facilitates the differentiation and production of language-specific articulatory patterns. Prolonged linguistic contact leads to articulatory accommodation, with long-term migrants exhibiting production patterns that are intermediate between the non-migrant control groups. Nasalization decreases considerably in later, more bilingual generations established in the Basque Country. In conclusion, physiological adjustment is achievable in early and prolonged bilingual settings, paving the way for new research avenues in second and heritage language sound articulation.
Dr. Jean Kaya is an Assistant Professor in Language and Literacy Education at the University of Windsor. He is a multilingual scholar and teaches language and literacy courses in the Faculty of Education. His aim is to equip future educators with the tools to effectively address the challenges and capitalize on opportunities of increasingly diverse classrooms and communities. Dr. Kaya’s research program investigates pre-service teacher education with the goal of promoting multilingualism, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the teaching profession. He draws on scholarship in the areas of language learning, intercultural learning, identities, and critical literacies. Dr. Kaya has presented at numerous conferences and written over twenty journal articles and book chapters.
CANCELLED
Navigating Bilingualism: Power, Identity, and Imagined Futures
In this keynote address, Dr. Jean Kaya will delve into the sociocultural dynamics of bilingualism and the responsibility that language educators bear in shaping the future of bilingual or multilingual communities. Drawing on his work from different contexts, including the United States of America, the Republic of Congo, Colombia, and Canada, Dr. Kaya will unpack how bilingualism is intertwined with the dynamics of power, identity construction, and imagined futures. For many individuals, speaking more than one language (i.e., bilingualism or multilingualism) can transform their future significantly. For example, it can create a wider range of opportunities regarding personal or professional connections, career, and intercultural learning and understandings. From this lens, bilingualism plays a critical role in shaping not only communication but also sociocultural dynamics. By addressing these dynamics, Dr. Kaya’s keynote address is aligned with the conference theme of The Different Faces of Bilingualism. He will emphasize the cultural component of bilingualism and related challenges and opportunities. Dr. Kaya will also talk about monolingualism as one of the faces of bilingualism. After discussing the urgent need for decolonizing bilingual education, especially in contexts where historical and linguistic inequalities persist, Dr. Kaya’s keynote will focus on the importance of viewing bilingualism as a vital tool for personal and collective growth in multicultural communities, despite the unequal distribution of power which is often embedded within the politics of bilingualism. The talk will conclude with the role of educators in fostering inclusive spaces that celebrate linguistic diversity, as bilingual learners can construct their identities and imagine new futures and possibilities based on their bilingualism or their languages as resources. In the concluding remarks, Dr. Kaya will share strategies for promoting bilingualism in ways that support linguistic pride, linguistic diversity, and empowerment of bilingual individuals.
Bio
Marie Jacobs (she/her) is a post-doctoral researcher in the field of sociolinguistics, supported by scholarships from the National Fund for Scientific Research and the Research Foundation Flanders. She is affiliated with the Department of Languages and Literatures at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University. Her PhD dissertation presented a linguistic ethnography of immigration law firms and investigated the role of language, narratives, and multilingualism in legal assistance for asylum seekers in Belgium. Her current work investigates language policies and the organization of language support in migration contexts. She is also interested in the methodological challenges of conducting research in superdiverse and sensitive environments. Marie Jacobs has published in esteemed international journals such as Language in Society, Journal of Pragmatics and Language Policy and has contributed to edited volumes such as The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism and Handbook of Pragmatics. She is also the co-editor of a special issue on “Spaces of Linguistic Non-Understanding when Researching Multilingually,” which appeared in Multilingua earlier this year.
Navigating Multilingual Complexities in the Asylum Context: Disparities, Practices, and Research Reflections
Applying for asylum is not merely a legal procedure—it is fundamentally a multilingual and discursive process. My research starts from the observation that communication in the asylum process is marked by a profound disparity in linguistic resources. Asylum seekers possess diverse language repertoires shaped by their biographical trajectories, while professionals who work in the asylum context, such as asylum officers and legal representatives, primarily operate in the host country’s dominant languages. This linguistic asymmetry necessitates multilingual strategies to facilitate asylum interaction: encounters are often mediated by (in)formal interpreters or conducted in a lingua franca.
This talk examines how managing the multilingual complexity of asylum interactions entails significant challenges for asylum officials, who decide who is granted asylum based on oral testimonies, for lawyers who navigate multilingual counsel, and for language scholars who study communication in the asylum procedure. To address this, I triangulate findings from three research projects in the Belgian context: an institutional discourse analysis of migration law and asylum decisions, a linguistic ethnography of lawyer-client interaction in immigration law firms, and methodological reflections on researching multilingually. Through the integration of these studies, I reveal the diverging multilingual strategies employed in the asylum process and how they constrain asylum seekers' opportunities to have their voices heard. Reflecting on my own experiences of conducting research in a multilingual context, I conclude that this linguistic inequality is the product of institutional limitations and context-bound ideologies rather than professional ignorance. In light of this finding, I propose two key methodological recommendations for the future of bilingualism studies.
Use this space to connect with fellow attendees to share housing, find roommates, or exchange travel tips. Whether you're looking for someone to split a hotel room with or recommendations on budget-friendly stays, this is the place to coordinate and make your trip more affordable and social.
Here's the link to check out the conference schedule.
You can find the list of posters scheduled across the five days of the conference at the following link.
Looking to share a taxi to the airport?
You can use this space to coordinate with other ISB15 participants who are departing around the same time.
Note: This is a self-organized initiative — the conference organizers are not coordinating taxi sharing.
Bio
Laura Bosch is Professor Emerita at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Barcelona. She is also member of the Institute of Neurosciences (UB Neuro) of the same institution and the Institute for Research Sant Joan de Déu (IRSJD) on pediatric population. She has coordinated the APAL infant Lab (Attention, Perception and Language Acquisition) linked to the UB and IRSJD research institutes. Her interests have covered a broad area of research on early speech and language perception but also production in both monolingual and bilingual populations. Within the field of bilingualism, her research has been centered in infancy, exploring early language differentiation skills, vocabulary building and phonological representation. Her research also includes populations at risk for neurocognitive disorders, with a focus on preterm infants and children with perinatal stroke. She is currently involved in a longitudinal research project on communication and oral language skills in infants born deaf two years after cochlear implantation.
Early bilingualism in close-language contexts: commonalities and specificities
Bilingualism is a broad construct covering a range of dual language learning contexts present in different socio-educational environments. A quick overview of the bilingual language acquisition literature reveals an evolution from the initial research, which focused on language differentiation issues, to more recent studies where a more nuanced approach on factors likely to modulate dual language learning is gradually being adopted. In consequence, general conclusions from the first studies have given way to more specific views on the learner and the learning contexts. Factors such as age of acquisition, quantity/quality of exposure and interactive situations, cognitive skills and strategies by the learner, as well as language properties and status, to mention but a few, have gained focus in research. At the same time, bilingual samples under study tend to be more precisely identified, avoiding data from heterogenous groups that might make interpretation difficult. In this talk I will review studies based on infants and children exposed to Catalan and Spanish, a pair of languages that are similar from a geographic, rhythmic, phonological, lexical and grammatical perspective; and I will contrast these studies with data obtained from populations exposed to languages that are less similar. I will selectively structure the talk in two separate but interconnected areas: 1) early language differentiation, and 2) the building of dual phonological systems. This overview will help identify research topics and questions that remain open to future studies on early bilingualism.
Bio
Jasone Cenoz is an expert in multilingual education, minority languages, linguistic landscape, and second and third language acquisition. She has published a great number of articles and several books and has presented her research results at numerous international conferences and seminars in different parts of the world. Her research has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the Research Prize from the Spanish Association of Applied Linguistics and the Advanced Research Prize from Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation of Science. She is ranked among the top 2% of the world's most cited scientists and in 2024 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University Jaume I. Formerly a Professor of Education at the University of the Basque Country, Jasone Cenoz remains actively engaged in research and research evaluation. She serves on the Advisory Council of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the board of the Basque Institute for Educational Evaluation and Research (ISEI/IVEI) and the ISEAK Foundation. She collaborates with various national and international research agencies. Additionally, she has been the President of the International Association of Multilingualism and the Education Committee of the Spanish Research Agency.
Multilingualism, minority languages and translanguaging
This keynote presentation, which has the different faces of bi/multilingualism as its point of departure, focuses on the intersection of multilingualism, minority languages and translanguaging in education. After discussing some key concepts, the characteristics of regional minority languages and their importance in the study of multilingualism will be highlighted. Specific attention will be paid to the Basque language as a minority language, its historical context, and the language policy to promote its knowledge and use in society.
The second part of the presentation relates the situation of regional minority languages to translanguaging in education and will reflect on issues such as the survival of minority languages, minority language speakers’ language identity and the potential advantages and risks of translanguaging for the survival of languages such as Basque. Furthermore, this presentation will look at the challenges that Basque faces nowadays in a globalized digitalized world. The presentation will call attention to the need to achieve a balance between the use of multilingual pedagogies, and the need for “breathing spaces” for minority languages, that is, spaces where the minority languages can be used freely and are not threatened by other languages. It will be shown how this balance can be achieved by implementing pedagogical translanguaging. This approach is understood as the use of different planned strategies and is based on activating students' resources from their whole linguistic repertoire so that they learn more efficiently, both in language and in content classes. Pedagogical translanguaging is sustainable and aims at the development of multilingual skills for both majority and minority language speakers.
The teaching of minority languages or academic content through the medium of minority languages is challenging because it has some specific characteristics, but the body of experience on different minority languages can inform other contexts of language learning in education and in the wider society.
Bio
Rob Hartsuiker is an experimental psychologist studying language processing. He studied experimental psychology at Leiden University, did an internship on computational modeling at the Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, and did a PhD on language production and aphasia at Radboud University Nijmegen. After postdocs in Nijmegen and Edinburgh he accepted a lectureship at Ghent University, where he is now senior full professor in cognitive psychology and research director of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences.
Hartsuiker works on bilingualism and second language acquistion, language production and comprehension, and self-monitoring of speech (including speech errors and disfluencies). He is also interested in cognitive aspects of the use of English as a medium of instruction in higher education. His research uses a range of methods, including behavioural experiments, eye-tracking, EEG, the study of language processing in individuals with brain damage, and computational models.
Hartsuiker was Associate Editor for Acta Psychologica and Psychological Science, was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cognitive Psychology (at that time the official journal of the European Society of Cognitive Psychology, ESCoP) and was involved in ESCoP’s transition to a society-owned open access journal (Journal of Cognition). Hartsuiker teaches master’s level courses on (computational) psycholinguistics and is local coordinator of an international joint master’s program in clinical linguistics.
Is bilingual lexical access really language non-selective?
There is consensus in the field that bilinguals routinely activate both of their languages, even when in a one-language context. This theory is supported by a plethora of evidence, including effects of cognate/interlingual homograph status and interlingual neighborhood size on reaction times. Further support comes from spurious eye-movements to objects with irrelevant language names that match the auditory input and ERP-responses to word pairs with form-overlap in their translations. In this talk, I will question this consensus and propose an alternative. I will argue that in one-language contexts there is usually no activation of the language(s) not in use. Effects that appear to support online activation can be explained by two mechanisms: (a) such effects are obtained in a two-language context, for instance in lexical decision tasks that mix words from both languages; (b) such effects are the result of a learning mechanism. For instance, cognates can be learned more easily than non-cognates. I will review several strands of research that seemingly support the online activation account in light of these mechanisms and propose an account of bilingual language processing in which other-language activation is regulated by language control processes.
Bio
Janet van Hell (PhD, University of Amsterdam) is Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Linguistics, and Director of the Center for Language Science at the Pennsylvania State University. Funded (mainly) by the National Science Foundation, research in her Bilingualism and Linguistic Diversity (BiLD) Lab focuses on the neural and cognitive basis of human language processing in linguistically diverse contexts, in L2 learners and monolingual, bilingual and bidialectal speakers. She combines neuropsychological and behavioral techniques to study patterns of cross-language interaction at the lexical and sentence levels, codeswitching, and accented-speech processing. She serves as PI of the NSF NRT program “Linguistic diversity across the lifespan: Transforming training to advance human-technology interaction”. She is also Co-Editor of Language Learning’s Cognitive Neuroscience Series.
Neurocognitive signatures of accented speech processing
Most late second language (L2) learners, even those with high L2 proficiency, have a noticeable accent in their L2. Nonnative-accented speech can pose comprehension challenges, as listeners must reconcile incoming deviating acoustic signals with their existing L1-based phonological representations. These challenges can be exacerbated when the nonnative-accented speech is embedded in noise, as may happen when you listen to your friend in a noisy restaurant or to your colleague during the conference coffee break. How do listeners process the speech produced by nonnative-accented speakers? I will discuss recent behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG/ERP) evidence on how listeners process semantic and syntactic information in sentences spoken by nonnative- and native-accented speakers. More specifically, I will discuss studies that examined how nonnative- and native-accented sentence processing is affected by listeners’ own language experience, information about the speaker’s identity, and noisy vs. quiet environments. Together these findings highlight the importance of integrating the impact of socio-indexical cues, listener experience, and environmental features in theoretical models on how listeners process speech produced by nonnative-accented speakers.
Bio
Pia Lane is Professor of Multilingualism in the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, coordinator of Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing) and PI of the project Indigenous language resilience: From learners to speakers (in collaboration with Professor Haley De Korne). Her research focuses on multilingualism in Northern Norway, with an emphasis on language policy, language shift and language revitalisation in relation to Indigenous and minoritised languages in her home community. She is the 2024 recipient of the Nansen Award for Excellence in Science.
Her publications include From Silence to Silencing? Contradictions and Tensions in Language Revitalization. Applied Linguistics, Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery, Routledge (co-edited with James Costa and Haley De Korne, 2017) and Negotiating Identities in Nordic Migrant Narratives - Crossing Borders and Telling Lives. Palgrave (co-edited with Bjørghild Kjelsvik and Annika Bøstein Myhr, 2022). She is co-editor-in-chief of LME Linguistic Minorities in Europe Online (LME), published by De Gruyter.
Pia Lane is a member of the Committee of Experts for the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages (Council of Europe) and has served as a member of the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2018-2023). The Commission’s task was to investigate historical injustices against the Sámi, Kven/Norwegian Finns and Forest Finns, examine the repercussions of this assimilatory policy, and propose measures for reconciliation.
Language revitalisation after historical trauma: Is language shift inevitable?
Indigenous peoples around the world have a history of marginalisation, oppression and even displacement, contributing to language shift as adults stop using their mother tongue with the next generation. Linguists have been concerned with this loss of languages since Hale et al.’s call for action (1992), and there is a substantial amount of research on the negative effects of language shift on social and individual well-being (Hinton, Huss & Roche 2018). Even when institutionalised oppression has been abandoned, effects of the past may still linger in the form of silencing, shame, and alienation (Lane 2023). Loss of language and culture practices may be an unresolved grief or historical trauma which is transmitted between generations (McKenzie 2022) and may (re)surface in revitalisation processes.
Language shift may come about through silencing by the nation state through oppressive educational policies and efforts to limit use of Indigenous languages. Somewhat paradoxically, language revitalisation may contribute to other forms of silencing, such as silencing by community members and self-silencing because of fear of speaking (Lane 2023). A reason might be that emotional aspects of language learning in Indigenous contexts seem to be particularly complex because of the identity politics and social control as to who has the right to claim the role of an authentic speaker.
I will primarily draw on data from interviews and biographical methods during ongoing fieldwork in Sámi communities in Norway at a moment in time when young Sámis attempt to reclaim a language that once was spoken in their family. The analysis will be supplemented with findings from other contexts. I conclude by highlighting how Indigenous peoples despite attempts to erase their linguistic and cultural practices have shown remarkable tenacity and resilience. This reminds us that human beings have a capacity to hope and strive for better futures for ourselves and our communities.
Bio
Rajend Mesthrie is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Senior Research Scholar at the University of Cape Town. He was head of the Linguistics Section (1998 – 2009) and also held a National Research Foundation chair in Migration, Language, and Social Change. He was President of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa (2002-2009) and of the International Congress of Linguists (2013-2018).
Among his fields of interest are General Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Language Contact, Language Variation, Areal Linguistics, Sociophonetics, Descriptive Syntax, World Englishes and Dialect Lexicography. He has published in all these areas with a particular focus on the languages of India (e.g. Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Tamil) and South Africa (e.g. Xhosa, Zulu, Fanakalo, English, Afrikaans). He is a past co-editor of English Today (2008-2012) and series editor for CUP’s Key Topics in Sociolinguistics. He is currently co-editor of the new series Cambridge Elements in Sociolinguistics.
Mesthrie has published over 150 articles in journals and chapters in books; and over 20 books. Amongst his recent book publications are Youth Language Practices and Urban Language Contact in Africa (ed. with Brookes and Hurst-Harosh, 2021, Cambridge University Press), Language in the Indian Diaspora (ed., with Kulkarni-Joshi, Edinburgh University Press, 2024) and Sociolinguistics Around the World (ed., with Martin Ball and Chiera Meluzzi, Routledge, 2nd ed. 2024).
Bridging morphemes, bridging languages: a study of bilingual creativity in southern Africa
Code-switching (which I use as a cover term for a range of overlapping phenomena and terms, some better motivated than others) continues to be an area of study that keeps on giving. Sociolinguistics has been enriched by approaches stressing discourse and conversation (e.g. Gumperz 1972), pragmatic effects (e.g. Myers-Scotton 1993a), multilingual identity (e.g. Gardener-Chloros 1991, Zentella 1997), psycholinguistic and structural integration (Muysken 2000, Myers-Scotton 1993b), speaker variation (Poplack 1980), creativity (Blackledge & Creese 2017, Sebba 2009) and potential in education (Williams 1994, Canagarajah 2011, Makalela 2016). Approaches from a generative persuasion (Pfaff 1979, De Swann 2009) take a less enthusiastic view in hypothesising “no separate grammar for code-switching”, positing no special syntactic mechanisms – in contrast to the novelty (and apparent bricolage) emphasised by sociolinguists. Yet attention to psycholinguistics and structure need not be incompatible with sociolinguistic appreciation and analysis of creativity.
This keynote talk will focus on bridging phenomena in code switching – structural elements that facilitate a transition from one language to the other. These differ from the trigger or polyvalent (ambi-valent?) words identified by early analysts (e.g. Clyne 1967, Woolard 1999) which are chiefly lexical items that may be said to belong to both languages. Among the strategies included under bridging is the occurrence of doubling, when a structural morpheme is repeated from the “other” language to facilitate integration into the code-switching syntax. A more central type of bridging is elaborated in this paper building on the work of Mesthrie & Mojapelo (2024), on “multilingual Xhosa” in Gauteng province, South Africa. Xhosa (or isiXhosa) speakers engage with English in higher education and beyond as an unavoidable and much-embraced language, while valuing Xhosa as a language of intimacy, community and heritage. As a consequence, highly educated multilingual speakers appear to have evolved a third space showing not just convergence (McCormick 2003, Sebba 2009) but the active analysis of English words (lexemes) while using Xhosa syntax. At the same time new bridging morphemes like -isha for English verbs and ubu- for English adjectives appear (or are co-opted) to activate this third space.
Bio
Elizabeth Peña, Ph.D. is a professor in the School of Education at UCI. She is a certified Speech-Language Pathologist and is a Fellow of the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Her research focuses on bilingualism and identification of developmental language disorder (DLD) within this population. Bilingual children are often misdiagnosed with both over- and under-identification of DLD. This leads to inequitable treatment and delays in identification and provision of appropriate services. Dr. Peña’s work on bilingual DLD led to development of assessment protocols (including dynamic assessment and the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment) that have high classification accuracy. Currently, she is working on a project to develop an approach to identify DLD in bilingual children using English as the test language where item selection is tailored to children’s level of English exposure. These projects support accurate and timely diagnostic decisions for bilingual children in the U.S. They put useful tools into the hands of the bilingual and monolingual SLPs in the U.S. who need to make accurate and timely diagnostic decisions about bilingual children.
Unpacking Developmental Language Disorder: Assessment in Bilingual Contexts
The last 20 years have seen an increased interest in bilingual assessment for identification of DLD. While we have an increased understanding of bilingual development, many myths persist that affect identification of DLD. A focus on markers across different languages has moved us forward in better understanding how to construct measures to identify DLD in bilingual populations. This shift has resulted in development of better measures with good classification accuracy when children are tested in both languages and their patterns of performance are considered in an integrated way. But, bilingual assessment is not always possible. We have an emerging profile of how DLD presents in English language learners. It may be possible to leverage this profile develop measures that are better tailored to assess individual children in their L2 based on their language experience.
Bio
Anthony Pym is Distinguished Professor of Translation and Intercultural Studies at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Catalonia, Spain, Extra-ordinary Professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has participated in a series of research projects on healthcare and emergency messaging in Melbourne, where more than 270 languages are spoken. He has recently published How to Augment Language Skills (Routledge, 2025, with Yu Hao), which seeks the integration of machine translation and generative AI into all language learning, and Risk Management in Translation (Cambridge University Press, 2025), which argues that translators should take more risks, including with translation technologies. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and was President of the European Society for Translation Studies from 2010 to 2016.
The social role of bilinguals in building cross-cultural trust
The COVID years saw a shift in multilingual communication policies in many countries, including Australia, where the work of professional translators was supplemented with funding for community-based mediation practices. Bilinguals are clearly engaged in both kinds of communication, but the relation between the two is not without tension and in some cases gives rise to open debate.
One way to understand the different roles is to analyze the implicit appeals made to the trustworthiness of the bilingual translator or mediator. On the one hand, the professional translator claims accuracy to the text based on their own institutional qualifications and language skills. This seeks ‘thin trust’, since the trustee is known only as a professional translator. On the other, the community-based mediator claims to convey a personally understood truth and seeks to be trusted as a community member, as has traditionally happened when one generation of immigrants prepares the way for the following one. They seek various kinds of ‘thick trust’, based on multifaceted social relations. Shadowing both these roles, one also finds active distrust in translators and mediators, which in turn can be thick or thin.
These distinctions help explain the different discursive practices we identified through extensive interview studies of the way healthcare messaging was received in different ethno-specific communities in Melbourne. Different kinds of trust and distrust come to the fore in different language communities, often in accordance with variable trust in institutional authority in the different home countries. In terms of multilingual communication policy, this can lead to problematic role confusion unless policies pay careful attention to consultation and co-design in the funding of mediation activities.
Our research shows that the apparent opposition between professional translators and non-professional community-based mediators is in many respects superficial. Its more contentious aspects can be mitigated by providing untrained mediators with short-term training in translation ethics and situation management, to complement the basic language skills that come with heritage bilingualism.
Coffee Break – Allergen Information
Pastries
Contains: gluten, egg, dairy
(Gluten-free options will be available)
Yogurt with jam
Contains: dairy
Custard
Contains: dairy, egg
Rice pudding
Contains: dairy
Fresh fruit / fruit salad
Contains: none
Milk options available:
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Whole milk
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Lactose-free milk
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Soy drink