About ACL - The Asian Conference on Language (ACL)

About ACL About IAFOR’s Conferences on Education About IAFOR Ways to Get Involved

About The Asian Conference on Language (ACL)

The Asian Conference on Language (ACL) is an interdisciplinary conference that explores the many fields, theories and practices of the study of language, from questions of language acquisition, psychology and linguistics, through those of culture, communication, and technology, to the teaching and learning of language.

In its written and spoken forms language dominates and shapes our lives. Far from just being the tool of communication, language can be beautiful or ugly, sparse and succinct, or overblown, technocratic; direct or obfuscatory; it can be mediocre, lazy, hurtful, spiteful, libellous, slanderous, or false, but it can also be uplifting, joyous, salutary, truthful, and even divine. Language brings us our first and dying words, and accompanies our journeys, helping us to formulate concepts, sentences, and lives, and helps us negotiate meanings, ideas, and each other.

The study of language and languages is an immense opportunity to engage with international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary content and issues that lie at the heart of the IAFOR mission. Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. Over the past year we have engaged in many cross-sectoral projects, including those with universities (the University of Barcelona, Hofstra University, UCL, University of Belgrade, Moscow State University and Virginia Tech), think tanks/research centers (the East-West Center, APHERP, The Center for Higher Education Research), as well as collaborative projects with the United Nations in New York, and here in Tokyo, with the Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office.

With the IAFOR Research Centre at Osaka University’s Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations. It is through conferences like these that we expand our network and partners, and we have no doubt that ACL2020 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice, and for the meeting of people and ideas.

About IAFOR’s Conferences on Education

IAFOR promotes and facilitates new multifaceted approaches to one of the core issues of our time, namely globalisation and its many forms of growth and expansion. Awareness of how it cuts across the world of education, and its subsequent impact on societies, institutions and individuals, is a driving force in educational policies and practices across the globe. IAFOR’s conferences on education have these issues at their core. The conferences present those taking part with three unique dimensions of experience, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating heightened intercultural awareness and they promoting international exchange. In short, IAFOR’s conferences on education are about change, transformation and social justice. As IAFOR’s previous conferences on education have shown, education has the power to transform and change whilst it is also continuously transformed and changed.

Globalised education systems are becoming increasing socially, ethnically and culturally diverse. However, education is often defined through discourses embedded in Western paradigms as globalised education systems become increasingly determined by dominant knowledge economies. Policies, practices and ideologies of education help define and determine ways in which social justice is perceived and acted out. What counts as "education" and as "knowledge" can appear uncontestable but is in fact both contestable and partial. Discourses of learning and teaching regulate and normalise gendered and classed, racialised and ethnicised understandings of what learning is and who counts as a learner.

In many educational settings and contexts throughout the world, there remains an assumption that teachers are the possessors of knowledge which is to be imparted to students, and that this happens in neutral, impartial and objective ways. However, learning is about making meaning, and learners can experience the same teaching in very different ways. Students (as well as teachers) are part of complex social, cultural, political, ideological and personal circumstances, and current experiences of learning will depend in part on previous ones, as well as on age, gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, varying abilities and more.

The following speakers, among others, have presented their research at IAFOR's conferences on education.

Sue Jackson, Pro-Vice Master (Vice President) for Teaching and Learning at Birkbeck, University of London and IAFOR International Director of Programme for Education; Rosemary Deem, OBE, Vice Principal for Education and Dean of the Doctoral School at Royal Holloway, University of London; Eiko Otani, President of Osaka Jogakuin University and education and technology expert; Barbara Lockee, Associate Director of the School of Outreach at Virginia Tech; Frieda Mangunsong, University of Indonesia Professor; Vice Chancellor (President) Mary Stuart of Lincoln University; Svetlana Ter Minasova, Founding Dean and now President of Moscow State University’s School of Foreign Languages; Akito Arima, Former Japanese Minister of Education and President of Tokyo University; Mona Abo-Zena, early childhood development expert of Brown University.

Other IAFOR Conferences in Education

The Asian Conference on Education (ACE)
The European Conference on Education (ECE)
The Asian Conference on Education & International Development (ACEID)
The IAFOR Conference on Educational Research & Innovation (ERI)
The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii (IICEHawaii)
The IAFOR Conference for Higher Education Research – Hong Kong (CHER–HongKong)
The Southeast Asian Conference on Education (SEACE)

About IAFOR

Founded in 2009, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) is a politically independent non-partisan and non-profit interdisciplinary think tank, conference organiser and publisher. Based in Japan, its main administrative office is in Nagoya, and its research center is in The Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), a graduate school of Osaka University. IAFOR runs research programs and events in Asia, Europe and North America in partnership with universities and think tanks, and has also worked on a number of multi-sector cooperative programs and events, including collaborations with the United Nations and the Government of Japan.

Ways to Get Involved

IAFOR depends on the assistance of a large number of international academics and practitioners who contribute in a variety of ways to our shared mission of promoting international exchange, facilitating intercultural awareness, encouraging interdisciplinary discussion and generating and sharing new knowledge. We are grateful for the time, effort and expertise donated by all our volunteer contributors.

Here are some of the ways you can get involved:

IAFOR Membership

IAFOR membership provides an exceptional opportunity to be a part of a leading global academic organisation, network and platform that is committed to nurturing the very best in interdisciplinary research in the global public interest. Membership is open to all scholars, professionals and policymakers, researchers, or those with a strong professional interest in education.

Learn more about IAFOR membership

Reviewing

With thousands of abstracts submitted each year for presentation at our conferences, IAFOR relies on academics around the world to ensure a fair and timely peer review process in keeping with established international norms of double-blind peer review. Our peer review process, which involves both reciprocal review and the use of Review Committees, is overseen by conference Organising Committee members under the guidance of the Academic Governing Board.

If you hold a PhD or another terminal degree in your field, are a current or former faculty member and have previous peer review experience, we encourage you to join the ACL Review Committee. To apply, please send your CV to acl@iafor.org.

Editing

IAFOR publishes six online, Open Access, editorially independent journals across a variety of disciplines, which are associated with IAFOR’s conferences. IAFOR journals are edited by academics who are experts in their fields, and journal submissions are evaluated by Editorial Board members and peer reviewers across the globe who have the relevant qualifications and expertise.

Publishing

Journals

Publish your research in one of IAFOR’s Open Access, editorially independent journals. Articles may be submitted via open calls for papers. Authors publishing with IAFOR are not required to pay submission or publication fees of any kind, and IAFOR journals are available to a global readership online, completely free of charge and without delay or embargo.

Conference Proceedings

If your abstract has been accepted, and you presented the work at ACL (including Virtual Presentations), you are encouraged to submit a full paper via the online submission system for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings, which will be made available online. For further details of how to submit your paper, please view the Final Paper Submission page. IAFOR Conference Proceedings are Open Access research repositories that act as permanent records of the research generated by IAFOR conferences. Please note that works published in the Conference Proceedings cannot be considered for publication in IAFOR journals.

THINK

THINK, The Academic Platform, is IAFOR’s online magazine, publishing the latest in interdisciplinary research and ideas from some of the world’s foremost academics, many of whom have presented at IAFOR conferences. Content is varied in both subject and form, with everything from in-depth articles to shorter opinion pieces, interviews, film and photography.

THINK gives academics the opportunity to step outside of the traditional research publishing status quo – to get creative, explore different disciplines and to have their ideas heard, shared and discussed by a global academic audience.

To write for THINK, please view the Submit page on the THINK website and then send your article proposal to publications@iafor.org.

Volunteering

Are you a student? Would you like to meet delegates and academics who are experts in their fields, practice your communication skills and experience a truly international academic event? The IAFOR Volunteer Programme offers opportunities for students to assist at IAFOR conferences such as ACL, involving responsibilities such as greeting participants, helping with registration and guiding participants to presentation rooms. To find out more about volunteering at an IAFOR event, please visit the IAFOR Volunteer Programme page.

If you have any questions, or if you would like to suggest additional ways in which you could contribute to IAFOR’s interdisciplinary activities, please feel free to email acl@iafor.org.