Call for Proposals

An official language of the United Nations, Chinese is the most widely spoken first language in the world, extending well beyond the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. The interest in the teaching and learning of Chinese has grown rapidly worldwide over the last decade. According to the People's Daily, there are now 40 million second language learners of Chinese around the world. In the United States alone, there are 1,200 elementary and secondary schools now offering Chinese as a foreign language in their curriculum. However, this vigorous and staggering learning interest is as yet severely underserved by a lack of research-based understanding of the nature and process of learning, and equally, by a lack of understanding of what kinds of pedagogical conditions may improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning.

This first TCCRISLS provides a forum to address issues specifically related to the acquisition of Chinese as a second language. To that end, we welcome proposals in the following areas:

• Learners' processing of input
• Learners' output-based learning
• Learners' response to pedagogical intervention
• Learning across linguistic domains
• Characteristics of learner language and learners' developmental trajectories
• Learners' context of acquisition: classroom, naturalistic, immersion, and study abroad

Proposal submission deadline: April 15, 2010. Notification by May 15, 2010.
Address for questions/submission: tccrisls@tc.columbia.edu

Presentation format:

• Individual papers: 20 minutes long with a 10-minute discussion period
• Poster presentations: Displayed for a 2-hour block of time. Opportunity for one-on-one discussions

A two-day pre-conference workshop on task-based language instruction will be held on Wednesday, September 29, and Thursday, September 30. To register, please contact us at tccrisls@tc.columbia.edu.