The 7th International Conference on Language and Education: Multilingual Education for Transformative Education Systems and Resilient Futures

The Asia Pacific Multilingual Education Working Group (MLE WG) is pleased to announce the 7th International Conference on Language and Education to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, this 4 – 6 October 2023, and the first Call for Abstracts. The seventh edition will address multilingual education for transformative education systems and resilient futures. UNESCO Asia andPacific Regional Bureau for Education, UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific, SIL International, Mahidol University, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO), the British Council, Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation, and Save the Children are partnering to make this a success.

This conference will bring policy-makers, researchers, practitioners and development actors to explore Mother Tongue Based Multilingual and broader language issues in sustainable development, and this will provide a unique opportunity to connect with some Indigenous people and the Youth in different countries working on similar thematic priorities to convene and exchange their diverse experiences and expertise. In 2019, over three days, the sixth edition (#IMMLE19) engaged more than 450 participants, including high-level government officials from 16 countries in the region. Using over 100 cases presented, the MLE WG was able to publish key advocacy materials and raise awareness in the region to support the implementation of MTB-MLE activities.

The 7^th Multilingual Education Conference will build upon #IMMLE19’s success and welcome submissions notably on the following topics:

• Foundational learning in first languages
  • Addressing the learning crisis with positive outcomes of developing early grade literacy and numeracy through learners’ first languages in MLE
• Assessments for MLE learners
  • Formative and summative assessments capturing the complex learning outcomes of multilingual learners
• Teachers’ recruitment and professional development in MLE environments
  • Approaches to recruiting, training and deploying teachers to schools with multilingual learners, with emphasis on capacity building such as language skills, multilingual strategies and multigrade pedagogies
• Additive MLE models
  • Lifelong-learning approaches to developing and learning in first languages and how to introduce additional languages (community, regional, national and international languages)
• MLE programme evaluation
  • Data collection, monitoring and evaluation analysing the conditions and factors which contributed to an MLE programme producing positive results
• MLE developments
  • Updates from the field on current MLE practices at any level of education in contexts where learners have different first languages at local, national and/or subregional levels

• MLE policies
  • Updates on and comprehensive overview of national, sub-regional or regional policies impacting language-in-education practices in the Asia-Pacific region
• Digitalisation of MLE
  • Digital innovations and use of technologies in materials development, teacher training and virtual/hybrid delivery of MLE
• Inclusion in MLE
  • MLE practices on including learners who are vulnerable due to exclusionary factors such as gender, poverty, delays and disabilities, location, refugee/migrant status etc.
• MLE in crises and emergencies
  • Implementing MLE and mother tongue-based learning in crisis and emergency contexts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, displacement
• Environment, climate change and MLE
  • Synergies between MLE and climate education in contributing to sustainable solutions for safeguarding languages and the environment
• Education and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032)
  • Non-dominant and indigenous languages, as well as local cultures and knowledges, in education

Abstracts for individual presentations and group panels must be submitted on 16 March 2023 before midnight/00:00 Bangkok time (GMT+7). All abstracts should be in English.Your contribution is welcomed in making this conference a success in its goal of robust research, exchange of experience and joint action on the relationship between language and pressing issues and their relevance to transforming education and education systems.

For further information about the 7th International Conference on Language andEducation,

please visit the conference website: https://asiapacificmle.net/conference/2023/

For abstract submission inquiries, please get in touch with 7mleconference2023.abstracts@gmail.com.

For general inquiries, please get in touch with the conference secretariat: at 7mleconference2023@gmail.com.