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Today’s diverse and complex societies constantly challenge scholars, practitioners, and learners to re-evaluate and re-imagine their understandings of theories and their impact on our practices. Defaulting to traditional ways of thinking, clouds our vision and can prevent us to see differently and think from multiple perspectives, something which is crucial in our changing realities. This Symposium aims to create a space for critical reflection to re-envision the education of languages and literacies in ways that promote sustainable and equitable futures.

This year’s Symposium will be the fifth Symposium of the Southern Ontario Universities. As such, it has become an anticipated event for faculties and students alike, to whom it offers a supportive setting where they can exchange, discuss and learn from each other’s recent, on-going or future research across different contexts, languages and cultures. As in the previous editions, this year too these discussions will be framed and enriched by two keynotes from two scholars,  one from a local and one from an international context respectively, both operating in the languages and literacies field.

We are excited to announce that the fifth Symposium of the Southern Ontario Universities will take place October, 4-5, 2024 at Western University and we invite you to submit contributions to one of the three different strands (presentations, roundtable discussion, poster presentations) in which participants will discuss new research avenues, including:

• bi-/multi-/trans-/plurilingualism in language education
• multiliteracies and multimodalities
• teachers’ and students’ agency
• mobility, migration and inclusion
• impact of language policies
• innovation in language teaching methodologies and assessment 
• artificial intelligence in language education
• language acquisition and language use
• technology-assisted language learning and teaching
• online learning and distance education

The Symposium will provide a unique opportunity for scholars (faculty members and graduate students) working in languages/literacies education to learn about each other’s work, exchange ideas, and showcase or discuss their research. It will also provide a platform to establish and expand opportunities for academic networking for future collaborations.

This fifth Symposium, hosted by Western University and jointly organized by the Center for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies (CERLL), will help further strengthen the collaborative network in languages/literacies education research across Southern Ontarian Universities that the Symposium has created over the past years. The hybrid format will ensure that the Symposium continues to reach a broader, national and international audience as was the case in the past online editions. With plenaries, presentations, roundtable discussions and poster sessions as well as social events, the Symposium will provide all participants, from Ontario and beyond, with a unique opportunity to become a part of the broader languages/literacies education academic community.