Registration opened today for an international conference entitled “Shared Language: Integration through Multilingualism”, which is being held in Tallinn on 14 & 15 November. The conference will bring together recognised experts from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Latvia, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Estonia to explore identity, education and labour market issues in the light of multilingualism.
The two-day event will feature discussion panels and workshops in which experts, researchers, policy-shapers and participants will debate a range of topics, including family migration, adapting to a new living environment, integration plans, multilingualism, the loss of a person’s first language and how this can be prevented.
To view the programme and register for the conference, go to the event’s website. Attendance is free of charge but requires advance registration.
The guest speakers at the event will include:
- Keynote speaker | Copenhagen Business School emeritus professor Robert Phillipson, who has studied language policy, language rights and multilingual education;
- Czech Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Václav Velčovský, who will be giving a presentation on developments in Czech education policy in the light of multilingualism and inclusion principles;
- Head of the Department of Language and Linguistics of the University of Essex Monika S. Schmid, who has studied a range of aspects of the loss of a person’s first language;
- University of Edinburgh Professor of Developmental Linguistics Antonella Sorace, a world-renowned expert who has published papers in the field of multilingual language development that bring together methods used in linguistics, experimental psychology and cognitive science;
- Elin Thordardottir, an expert with the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders of McGill University and the head of research laboratories in both Montréal and Iceland whose research focusses on such topics as the normal acquisition of language and language disorders among children who speak one or more languages; and
- University of Konstanz and University of Reading Professor of Multilingualism Theo Marinis, who studies multilingualism, multiliteracy and the acquisition of language among students with typical and atypical development and leads the EU project ‘Multilingual Mind’.
More information about all of the speakers can be found on the conference website.
This is the fourth consecutive integration-themed international conference being organised by the Integration Foundation in Tallinn. It will be held on 14 & 15 November at the Radisson Blu Hotel Olümpia (Liivalaia 33, Tallinn).
The working language of the conference will be English, with simultaneous interpreting into Estonian and Russian.
The event is being run by the Integration Foundation in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture. Also supporting the organisation of the conference are the embassies of the United States, Finland, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic in Estonia, the British Council and other partners.
For further information please contact:
Anastassia Tuuder
Head of Research Activities
Integration Foundation
Telephone: 659 9853
E-mail: anastassia.tuuder@integratsioon.ee
