Call for papers
Bilingual conference
(French/English)
December 4-6 2008,
Anthropology, interculturality and
language learning and teaching
Organised by:
PROGRAMME (FINAL
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LIST OF ABSTRACTS (FINAL
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Meeting description
« (…) the array of methods, observations and analyses
available through anthropology can help us to explain the complexity of a
contemporary world which witnesses contradictory movements of the explosion of
diversity and the end of boundaries » Augé & Colleyn
This is how one of the latest books which synthesizes the
role of anthropology (The Work of the
Anthropologist (2006, Berg Publishers) justifies the importance of
anthropology in our contemporary worlds. Could the argument of the French
anthropologists Marc Augé and Jean-Paul Colleyn explain why anthropology and
its methods have been introduced (sometimes frenziedly) in language learning and
teaching, especially since the arrival of the much lauded concept of
interculturality in its didactics, which ‘preaches’ the acceptance and respect
of diversity, but struggles to connect discourse and acts?
Worldwide scientific literature in didactics but also applied
linguistics provides many examples of the introduction of anthropology in
teaching/learning programmes:
- Anthropology of the distant other (Jane Jackson in
- Anthropology of the near (Judith Humery & Fred Dervin in
- Anthropology of mobilities and
intercultural encounters (Celia Roberts, Michael Byram, Ano Barro, Shirley
Jordan et Brain Street 2000; Mike Berry 2008);
- Cyberanthropology (internet,
asynchronous fora, videoconference, Second
Life... O’Dowd, 2007) ;
- Auto-ethnography (use of personal
diaries, Marie-José Barbot 2006);
- Anthropology done by teaching staff and
researchers in the classroom (Anna Triantaphyllou 2002);
- Problem-based anthropologies such as
the one theorized by Martine Abdallah-Pretceille which moves away from a
descriptive ethnology (2003: 17).
The purpose of this bilingual conference is to examine the miscellaneous ways of using such a complex discipline as anthropology and its methods in language learning and teaching and to gather some of the leading specialists interested in these methods. The conference has its roots in a cooperative project on cyberanthropology between the Universities of Paris 8 and Turku , Finland
Papers should address research
questions, including but not limited to the following topics:
-
Types of anthropological methods (interview, active/
peripheral (participation-) observation…) and complementary methods of analysis
(semiotics, discourse analysis) used;
-
The teaching and learning of these approaches/methods in
language learning and teaching;
-
Contexts/fields in which the approaches/methods are used
(far, near, places, non-places...);
- The role and contribution of new
technologies in the use of anthropology (fields: Second Life,
pod-/videocasting; collection tools: digital cameras, digital voice
recorders...);
- Impacts of these methods on
learners and teaching staff in the long run;
- Language and intercultural
autonomous learning and anthropology;
- Issues raised by the use of
anthropological methods in language learning and teaching. For teaching staff?
Learners? Observed individuals ? (generalisations, ethical problems, face
loss...) :
- Establishment of links between
e.g. participation-observation and results;
- Learning objectives in terms of
intercultural, plurlingual, pragmatic, linguistic, academic competences) and
their integration/progression in curricula;
- Assessment.
The topic of training teaching staff
for these methods can also be discussed.
Invited speakers:
·
Martine Abdallah-Pretceille, Professor, Universities of Paris 3
& Paris 8, France
·
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Professor of social anthropology,
University of Oslo (Norway) and Vrije Universiteit d’Amsterdam (The
Netherlands);
·
Shirley Jordan, Reader in French, Queen Mary,
'Ethnography in a Changing World: Theory, Practice, Context'
Submissions
in English or in French are
invited in the following categories:
(1)
Research papers (20 minutes + 15 minutes for questions)
These
papers should document established results and/or present theoretical
reflections.
(2) Presentations on work in progress (20 minutes + 10
minutes for questions and comments from audience)
These papers may address issues
still being worked upon.
The author(s) should submit one 300-word
abstract by e-mail (freder@utu.fi
and bearfrac@yahoo.com)
by 15 May 2008. The abstract should include:
- the name, institution phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of each
author;
- the title;
- objectives or purposes;
- perspective(s) or theoretical framework;
- methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry;
- data sources or evidence;
- (results and/or conclusions/point of view)
Abstracts will be reviewed by the scientific
committee for originality, significance, clarity and academic rigour. Links
with theory must be explicit.
Authors are requested to submit their papers before
the conference (November 15 2008). A publication of the proceedings with refereed status will
follow the conference.
Important dates:
- Abstract Submissions: 15 May 2008
- Registration from 1 April 2008
- Paper submissions: 15 November 2008
- Conference: 4-6 December 2008
Scientific committee:
·
Martine Abdallah-Pretceille, Université
de Paris 3 & 8, France
·
Marie-José Barbot, Université de
Lille 3, France
·
Michael Byram,
·
Fred Dervin, Département d’études
françaises, Université de Turku, Finlande
·
Béatrice Fracchiolla, Université
de Paris 8, France
·
Gilberte Furstenberg,
·
Esmeralda Lopes Rosa, Department of English, University of
the
Contacts (organisers):
·
Fred Dervin, Senior lecturer, Juslenia, 20014
·
Béatrice Fracchiolla, Associate
Professor, Département de ComFle, Université de Paris 8, 2 Rue de la Liberté,
93200 Saint-Denis, France, Tel : +33678140072, bearfrac@yahoo.com