April 23, 2025 - April 25, 2025
https://ling.sprachwiss.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/trotzke/lidi.html
How to handle norms is arguably one of the most pivotal issues pertaining to the self-definition of language didactics and to the role of language teachers. In the context of language teaching, educators are required to navigate a multitude of norms that vary in scope, origin, status, and relevance.
In addition to the implicit subsistent norms of any language or variety, we deal with overtly codified, officially binding and prescriptive writing norms (for example, the official rules for German spelling). Reference works on grammar, pronunciation and style are, in turn, informed to varying degrees by empirical (usage-based) research and can be read in a prescriptive or descriptive manner. Questions that arise in dealing with standards of this kind revolve around the scholarly basis of reference works, the relationship between description and prescription, and the knowledge that future teachers must possess regarding the status and development of the norms.
However, it is not only linguistic norms that play a role in language didactics; transitory didactic norms (Valdman 1966; Feilke 2015), such as those regarding text types, also have an impact. As didactic norms are intended to facilitate learning/acquisition (e.g., of extracurricular target norms), it is essential to ascertain whether a specific didactic norm is reasonably aligned with a corresponding (extracurricular) target norm, whether it can be processed by the learners and actually supports the attainment of learning objectives.
The workshop will address these and other questions arising from the tension between norm and variation, norm fulfilment and (critical) norm reflection, and – not least – between linguistics and didactics.
Keynote speakers:
• Jörg Kilian (Kiel)
• Sandra Götz-Lehmann (Marburg)
• Jutta Ransmayr (Wien)
Submission instructions:
We invite proposals for contributions in English or German from researchers in the fields of first, second and foreign language acquisition and didactics. Please submit your abstract (approx. 300 words excluding references) by October 31, 2024 via the EasyAbs platform:
https://easyabs.linguistlist.org/submit/LiDi/
Submissions open: Aug. 18, 2024 - Oct. 31, 2024
Abstract review period: Nov. 4, 2024 - Dec. 13, 2024