NALDIC has been hosting successful EAL conferences, events and training for more than 20 years. More information about some of our annual conferences, including presentations, photos and videos are featured in the members sections of this section.
You can find a brief outline of our most recent conferences below
Educating Multilingual Learners In The 21st Century:Our 25th Annual Conference
Professor Fred Genesee, McGill University
Looking Back over 25 Years of Research and Moving Forward
Abstract
There is a large and growing number of EAL students in our public schools. These students face numerous challenges on the way to academic success. Research and professional practice during the past 25 years have expanded our understanding of how to enhance the educational success of EALs. This work has been multi-disciplinary in nature and has examined diverse aspects of the development of school-age EALs, including their language development, academic achievement, cognitive abilities, and social well-being. The National Institutes of Science, Engineering and Medicine in the U.S. recently published a synthesis of findings of that research —Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures; I was a member of the panel that prepared that report. In this plenary, I will discuss key findings from that report highlighting implications for school-wide and classroom practice.
Biographical notes
Fred Genesee is Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at McGill University, Montreal. He has conducted extensive research on alternative forms of bilingual/ immersion education for language minority and language majority students, language acquisition in pre-school bilingual children, internationally-adopted children, and the language and academic development of at-risk students in bilingual programs. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals, professional books and magazines and is the author of more than 12 books on bilingualism. He is the recipient of the Canadian Psychology Association Gold Medal Award, Paul Pimsler Award for Research in Foreign Language Education, Canadian Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Community or Public Service, California Association for Bilingual Education Award for Promoting Bilingualism and the le prix Adrien-Pinard.
Professor Li Wei, University College London
Translanguaging and Multicompetence
Abstract
In this talk, Li Wei will outline two theoretical concepts in the study of multilingualism and language learning – Translanguaging and Multicompetence – and explore how they can be usefully applied in the practical work supporting English as an additional language learners and other emerging multilinguals. In particular, he will stress the importance of the role of the learners’ first languages and their capacity to use multimodal and multisensory resources in learning.Biographical notes
Li Wei is Chair of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Centre of Applied Linguistics at the University College London, Institute of Education. He previously worked at Birkbeck College, London and Newcastle University. He is Editor of the International Journal of Bilingualism, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK.Reading references:
Ofelia Garcia and Li Wei (2015) Translanguaging: Bilingualism, language and education. Palgrave Macmillan
Vivian Cook and Li Wei (eds) (2016) Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Multi-Competence. Cambridge University Press