May 30, 2025 - June 1, 2025
CASLAR is a biennial conference with the goal to bring together scholars from all over the world whose research focuses on the acquisition, development and use of Chinese as a second language to survey available knowledge in the field, exchange ideas and initiate research projects. The conference is a part of the CASLAR movement that aims to transform a field from a primarily experienced-and practice-based discipline into a discipline based on and supported by research and theory. The first CASLAR conference was held at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China in 2010, the second one was in Taipei, Taiwan in 2012, the third conference was held in Parma, Italy in 2014, CASLAR-4 was held at East China Normal University, China in 2016, CASLAR-5 was held at University of Hong Kong, China in 2018, CASLAR -6 was held in Washington, DC, USA and CASLAR-7 was hosted by Peking University, Beijing, China. Another means supporting the CASLAR movement is a bilingual journal Chinese as a Second Language Research 漢語作為第二語言研究 published by De Gruyter Mouton; Berlin/New York. Copies of the journal will be available at the conference. Website of the journal: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/caslar
The CASLAR-8 conference is co-organized by the Faculty of Letters at Transilvania University of Brasov, the leading and largest university in the central region of Romania. The school has two departments: Theoretical and Applied Linguistics and Literature and Cultural Studies and coordinate programs of undergraduate and graduate studies in Romanian, English, German, French and Chinese.
Organizers:
Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR) Association
Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania
Organizing Committee (in alphabetical order):
Conference Co-Chairs:
Distinguished Professor Istvan Kecskes, Chairman of CASLAR, Editor-in-Chief of Intercultural Pragmatics and the CASLAR journal, State University of New York, Albany, USA.
Mihaela Gheorghe, linguistics professor, Vice-President of Transilvania University of Brașov, senior researcher at the Romanian Academy „Iorgu Iordan” Linguistics Institute.
Adrian Lacatus, Dean of the Faculty of Letters, Transilvania University of Brașov, associate professor of Comparative Literature, vice-president of the Romanian Association of Comparative Literature.
Confirmed Plenary Speakers:
Hang Zhang (George Washington University, USA)
Anqi Ding (East China Normal University, Shanghai, China)
Carlotta Sparvoli (Ca'Foscari University Venice, Italy)
Call for Papers:
CASLAR-8 invites proposals for presentations that are related to research in any area of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL). Those wishing to participate should prepare abstracts for 20-minute oral presentations or poster presentations. Below there are some suggested categories for topics, though submissions need not be limited to these areas.
Suggested Topic Areas:
• Acquisition and development of CSL: phonetics & phonology, semantics, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, etc.
• Chinese character acquisition and development of CSL reading and writing
• Application of linguistic theories to Chinese L2 data
• Cognitive aspects of CSL acquisition
• Motivation to learn Chinese
• Role of culture in the acquisition of CSL
• Discourse in CSL
• Technology and CSL: Corpus and Learner Errors, Distance Learning in CSL, etc.
• Curriculum and instruction
• Research-based Language Teaching Methodology for CSL at all levels
• Designing materials for CSL
• Conceptual socialization in the process of developing CSL
• Assessment of proficiency in CSL
Publication:
There will be two selected-papers volumes published from conference presentations. One of them will select the best papers focusing on linguistics (Routledge) and discourse issues of CSL/CFL while the second one will select the best papers focusing on language learning and teaching issues (DeGruyter). Papers can also be submitted for consideration to the CASLAR journal.
In addition to keynote addresses, breakout sessions, poster presentations and publisher exhibitions, the CASLAR-6 Conference will also offer two more activities:
1) CASRI Roundtables (CASLAR Research Initiative): CASRI research groups (see caslarcenter.com website) will offer round table discussions about the topics they focus on: 1) prosody and tone, 2) formulaic language, idioms, situation-bound utterances, 3) acquisition and use of modality, 4) innovative pedagogical approaches, 5) vocabulary, speech acts and discourse, 6) neural mechanism of cognitive/psychological process in the Chinese language as related to language acquisition. Participation in these round-table discussions is voluntary.
2) A couple of workshops with the objective of bridging the research and practice of Chinese language acquisition. For example, the From Paper to Practice workshops will present research findings in a way that is accessible and applicable to practitioners in a variety of teaching contexts and will also present opportunities for collaboration and communication between researchers with similar interests and classroom language instructors. Workshops are open to conference attendees, free of charge. However, participants are required to sign up for workshops in advance.
Registration fees:
Full time students $140 euro (by April 15) | $180 euro (by May 15) | $220 euro (after May 15)
All other participants $220 euro (by April 15) | $260 euro (by May 15) | $300 euro (after May 15)
Conference Dinner (optional): $55 euro
The registration fee covers access to all plenary, breakout, and workshop sessions, the lunches and coffee breaks specified
in the conference program. Conference dinner is optional and not included in the conference registration fee.
Submission instructions:
New extended deadline: January 31, 2025
Please submit abstracts to EASYABS.
Abstract Guidelines:
• Abstracts should be written in English or Chinese and be submitted as a WORD doc (not a PDF file).
• Your personal information such as name, affiliation, and email can NOT be included in the abstract. The personal information will be collected before uploading your abstracts on EasyAbs.
• Each proposal should include: the title, the abstract, three to five keywords and a summary (A4 or Letter size, 12 points in single space). The first keyword should indicate the topic area of your study, such as ‘Phonology,’ ‘Pragmatics,’ ‘Textbook,’ etc. (please refer to the aforementioned “Suggested Topic Areas”). The summaries may be used in the conference program.
• You will be asked to indicate your proposal category on EasyAbs. Both Individual Presentations and Panels are acceptable.
o Individual Presentations: This category is for proposals to give a 20-minute oral presentation (15 minutes plus 5 minute Q & A) or in the format of poster presentation. The abstract should not exceed 350 English words (or about 600 Chinese characters) with title and keywords. The abstract should summarize the purpose of the study, methods, main results, and implications (if relevant). A summary of your proposal should not exceed 60 English words (or 90 Chinese characters). Poster presentations usually focus on an on-going project. They combine text and graphics to present the project in a way that is visually interesting and accessible. The format of the presentations will be subject to the Organizing Committee’s final decision.
o Panels: This category is for an hour-long panel comprised with three, or four, presentations on a common theme. Each panel must have a representative submitting a proposal, which should include: a) the main theme of the panel; b) individual topics and abstracts; c) five key words and a summary. The proposal should not exceed 500 English words in total (or 750 Chinese characters) and the summary should not exceed 100 English words (or about 150 Chinese characters). Conference participants may use the google docs below to organize panels and look for potential panel contributors, if needed: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_oVsvnIozwQAhGuiXOPBNuhhe8yJaZomNYv2dIaZTRw/edit?ts=5da8982a#gid=0
Submissions open: Jan. 1, 2025 - Jan. 31, 2025
Abstract review period: Jan. 15, 2025 - Feb. 5, 2025
Contact Email: [email protected]