The conference offers fresh outlooks on language education policy acknowledging its multidisciplinary and multidimensional nature, and its social, cultural and economic dimensions. Where and by whom are language education policy decisions made, explicitly and/or implicitly? How do educational systems respond to challenges of multilingual societies? Critical views will be presented in order to understand the current developments and challenges of language education from both micro and macro perspectives. The conference is simultaneously the 28th International Summer School for Applied Language Studies at the University of Jyväskylä.

Keynote speakers are Joseph LoBianco (University of Melbourne Australia), Clara Keating (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal), and Sue Wright (University of Portsmouth, England). Additional interactive workshops will be organised by Christine Helot (University of Strasbourg) and Muiris ÓLaoire (Institute of Technology Tralee). The workshop programme will be further updated during the following months.

The programme of the conference consists of plenary sessions, invited workshops, parallel paper sessions, and poster sessions. It is also possible to propose a thematic  or symposium session, consisting of 3-4 presentations or a panel. Please contact the organisers at whoneedslanguages (at) jyu.fi if you wish to propose a session. The working language of the conference is English, but we encourage the use and visibility of other languages in bilingual/ multilingual handouts slides etc. 

The paper and poster proposals are submitted via the conference website.

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010. Notification of acceptance or rejection will take place by February 28, 2010, after the conference board has reviewed the submissions.