2023 ICC Conference

Call for Proposals

The Integration of 21st Century Skills in the Language Classroom

Belgrade, Serbia, on May 13th and 14th, 2023

ICC-the International Language Association cordially invites you to our annual conference to be held at the Envoy Conference Centre, Belgrade, Serbia, on May 13th and 14th, 2023.

The conference will feature a hybrid format, combining both in-person and virtual attendance options to allow as many participants as possible to attend the conference and present their research.

It is our pleasure to announce that the conference of this year is free of charge. Language educators and practitioners from around the world are most welcome to join us in exploring the conference theme:

KEY TOPICS 

  • 21st-century skills with regard to language teaching and learning
  • Achieving well-being and student engagement in language learning and in the language classroom
  • Diversity and inclusivity in language learning and intercultural communication
  • The future of online teaching and hybrid classrooms after Covid-19
  • The role of plurilingualism and translingual teaching in the classroom and in teaching materials
  • Language teaching and teacher training for refugees: key principles and good practice
  • Developments in online testing of language learning ability

Keynote Speech

Learner Engagement and Language Teaching in the 21st Century: A Perspective from Canada

Prof. Nikolay Slavkov (University of Ottawa)

Authentic engagement is an important piece in the language teaching and learning puzzle. Learning a language needs to be translatable into real-life applications. This can ultimately result in competent and confident target language use in a variety of daily interactions, rather than confining the language learning process to the walls of the classroom. In addition, a recent focus on 21st century or transversal skills has brought to the fore questions about how to integrate language learning into meaningful and useful competences that do not simply serve linguistic or communicative purposes. That is, learning and using a new language should confer more holistic benefits to an individual’s experiences and overall well-being in various social, professional, and personal contexts. Last but not least, language learning should also be… fun!

Against this backdrop, I will present the Linguistic Risk-Taking Initiative, a new pedagogical approach developed on the campus of the University of Ottawa, the largest English-French bilingual university in the world. I will showcase a linguistic passport tool and a digital app that were designed to increase learner engagement and push students out of their comfort zone into taking linguistic risks (in French or English). Linguistic risks are authentic communicative acts where students look for challenging professional, social, or personal situations. These are situations in which students would normally be hesitant to use the language that they are learning due to the “risk” of linguistic discomfort, anxiety, or lack of confidence. Yet, after actively seeking out and engaging in such communicative situations with the target language, learners can experience the benefits of increased competence and confidence in that language. This is also coupled with positive emotions, such as a feeling of pleasure, achievement, or success.

I will discuss some theoretical underpinnings of the approach from positive psychology, socialization, and gamification and then offer data from questionnaires, interviews, and app usage patterns validating the linguistic risk-taking approach and illustrating learner engagement. I will conclude by offering examples of how this approach and its tools can be adapted to other languages and contexts around the world.

Bio

Nikolay Slavkov is Associate Professor and Director of the Canadian Centre for Research and Studies in Bilingualism and Language Planning (CCERBAL) at the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI) of the University of Ottawa. Prof. Slavkov’s research contributions include keynote addresses, edited volumes, journal articles, and book chapters on language pedagogy and innovation, child language development, family language policy, technology, bilingualism, multilingualism, and (Slavic) linguistics. His work has appeared in the AILA Review, Canadian Modern Language Review, International Journal of Multilingualism, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Foreign Language Annals, Second Language Research, Immersion Journal, Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, TESL Canada, Lingua, and Journal of Slavic Linguistics. He has taught in Canada, the United States, China, and Bulgaria.

Conference Programme

Last updated: 23 April 2023

Please note that this timetable follows Central European Summer Time (CEST).

Friday, 12 May 2023 (Envoy Hotel)

Cika Ljubina 13, Stari Grad, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

17:30 Board Meeting                                                                                    
19:00 Welcome Reception

Saturday, 13 May 2023 (Envoy Conference Centre)

Gospodar Jevremova Street 47, Belgrade, Serbia

last updated: May 10th

length of talk: 30 minutes (20-minute presentation and 10-minute Q&A)

09:00 Welcome
09:30

On-site          

Keynote speech 

Nikolay Slavkov (Canada):

Learner Engagement and Language Teaching in the 21st Century: A Perspective from Canada

10:15 Discussion
10:45 Coffee break
11:00

Online

Olena Plakhotnikova (Ukraine) and Eva Seidl (Austria):

Teachers’ Collective Reflexivity Meant for Students’ Collective Agency in the Process of 21st-Century Skills Acquisition

11:30

On-site

Damian Fäh (Switzerland): 

Best Practices for Teaching Refugees: The Scenario-Based Approach of “Fide”

12:00

Online

Elizabeth Mickiewicz (UK)

EUROLTA for Refugees and Asylum Seekers 

12:30

On-site

Burcu Koç & Seval Kaygısız (Turkey):

Uncovering English Language Learners’ Reflections on Language Learning with Netflix 

13:00

On-site

Christos Sotiropoulos (Greece): 

Teaching Ideas with Tik Tok 

13:30 Lunch
14:30

Online

Albéris Eron Flávio de Oliveira (Brazil): 

Adapted Fiction as a Teaching Tool in the English-Language Classroom

15:00

Online

Marwa Seif (Egypt): 

Exploring Critical Thinking Techniques in CLIL

15:30

On-site

Ana Kodrić Ivelić (Croatia): 

Designing and Implementing CLIL Lessons – a Step towards an Intercultural, Inclusive, Digitalized Society

16:00

On-site

Ridha Mejri (Germany): 

Do We Need a “Different Approach” to Teaching Business English?

16:30 Coffee Break
16:45

Online

Mikaela Amelini (Argentina):

Tools for Teaching Language Skills in a Post-Pandemic Scenario

17:15

Online

Cristina Nicolae (Romania):

Subtitling: TED-Ed Video-based Lessons as a Transformative EFL Didactic Tool

17:45

Online

Carmen Notari Montoyo (Spain) & Anita Cvetkovic Kienle (Germany): 

The Template EU Project: Teachers’ Reflections and Attitudes about a Webinar-Based Training Experience on Plurilingual Language Learning and Teaching

19:45 Dinner (own cost)

Velika Skadarlija Restaurant

Note: Lunch and coffee are complimentary.

Sunday, 14 May 2023 (Envoy Conference Centre)

Gospodar Jevremova Street 47, Belgrade, Serbia

09:00             ICC Annual General Meeting
10:00 Coffee Break
10:30

On-site  

Panel Discussion: ChatGPT – A Revolution of Language Teaching and Learning or Just a Hype?

Moderator: Thomas Tinnefeld (Germany)

Panelists: Aleksandra Skoko Despenic (Serbia),  Oonagh McGirr (UK), Nikolay Slavkov (Canada)

11:45

Online

Ines Boulahja (Tunisia): 

The Intersection of Technology and 21st Century Skills in the EFL Classroom

12:15

On-site

Burcu Koç & Muhammed Kök (Turkey):  

English Language Teachers’ Cognition in Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC)

12:45 Lunch
13:45

Online

Jennifer Eddy (USA): 

Teachers as Designers with Learners as Mediators for Intercultural Communicative Competence 

14:15

Online

Ursula Stickler,  Helene Pulker, Christine Pleines,  Melanie Foedisch, Qia Kan, Jo Fayram,  Lesley Fearn & Felicity Harper  (UK):

DOTED – Fostering Wellbeing through Student Engagement in Distance Learning

14:45

On-site

Michael Carrier (UK): 

Using Word Histories, Cognates, and Etymologies in Language Teaching

15:15

Online

Mariam Kilanava (Georgia):
Advancing 21st Century Skills in English as a Foreign Language courses through the Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) Method at HEIs
15:45  End of the Conference

16:00  

    to

18:00

Guided City Tour         

Accommodation

We can recommend the following two hotels in Belgrade:

Envoy Hotel

https://www.envoy-hotel.com/

Mark Hotel

https://www.markhotelbelgrade.com/

For more information, please contact us via email tatjana.kovac@icc-languages.eu