The Applied Languages Studies Research Group of the Comparative Humanities and Applied Language Studies Lab organizes an International Conference on Applied Linguistics
ICAL 2026 (1-2 December)
Conference Theme
Glocalization in Languages, Education, and Communication:
Comparative Perspectives, Evolving Synergies, and Digital Futures.
📍Conference Venue
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Agadir
Ibnou Zohr University, Morocco
🌍🎤🧠🌟 Keynote Speakers:
1. Dr. David Block. Honorary Professor in Sociolinguistic. Humanities Department. Pompeu Fabra University. Barcelona, Spain. (Website)
2. Dr. Dick Smakman. Leiden University. Leiden. The Netherlands. (Website)
🌍 Conference Overview:
At a juncture where global linguistic flows increasingly intersect with deeply rooted regional realities, glocalization has emerged as a vital paradigm for understanding language, education, and communication in context. The International Conference on Applied Linguistics (ICAL 2026) invites scholars, researchers, and practitioners worldwide to contribute to a timely, intellectually rigorous exploration of this evolving landscape.
Within this forum, glocalization is conceptualized as the dynamic, multi-directional interaction between global linguistic, educational, and communicative processes and their localized adaptation, negotiation, and resistance within specific sociocultural contexts (Canagarajah, 2005; Song & Sercu, 2025). This perspective is uniquely vital for interrogating language ideologies, identity construction, fluid linguistic repertoires, and shifting power relations in multilingual settings (Canagarajah, 2005; Song & Sercu, 2025).
Rather than viewing these dynamics through a singular geographic lens, ICAL 2026 establishes a comparative platform. It seeks to explore how glocalizing forces manifest across diverse geopolitical landscapes. It tries to specifically examine the intersections, divergences, and dialogues between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and other global contexts. This conference seeks to investigate how glocalization (i.e., the mutual shaping of global and local forces through the simultaneous processes of universalization and particularization) manifests across diverse geopolitical landscapes, ranging from the post-communist urban spaces of Europe to the post-colonial dynamics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and other global contexts (Song and Sercu, 2025). It examines the intersections where globalized educational models, such as the expansion of Confucius Institutes, are strategically adapted to local institutional norms, and where dialogues emerge in digital diasporas. These mediated spaces allow professional migrants to perform complex identity construction to mitigate cultural isolation and maintain transnational ties. Furthermore, the study probes divergences marked by localized resistance, such as the defense of national languages against the perceived "threat" of English in MENA region, Denmark and Brazil, or the use of translanguaging to subvert monolingual norms and celebrate diversity in Bulgarian street culture. By analyzing these interactions, the research interrogates shifting power relations, uncovering how linguistic proficiency and code-switching function as symbolic capital in settings as varied as the MENA multilingual region and the commercialized ESL markets of China. (Canagarajah, 2005; Mayoma, 2026; Lestari and Prakoso, 2026; Pfadenhauer, Rüdiger, and Serreli, 202; Tange, H, 2007)
While Europe navigates the complexities of superdiversity, migration-driven multilingualism, and evolving language policies within the European Union, the MENA region offers a rich site characterized by complex diglossic ecologies, postcolonial linguistic legacies, and layered language ideologies. By placing these regions and historical global frameworks in conversation, the conference aims to challenge Eurocentric and regional isolations alike. We invite scholarship that captures how hybridized forms of discourse, shifting linguistic capital, and context-sensitive pedagogies are being negotiated globally.
🧠 Rationale and Current Research Context:
The overarching theme of ICAL 2026 is grounded in four interrelated developments at the forefront of contemporary international applied linguistics:
1. Glocalization as a Linguistic and Pedagogical Paradigm:
Glocalization has reoriented applied linguistics away from rigid monolingual biases, shifting the focus to how global linguistic norms are localized, recontextualized, and indigenized. These tensions manifest uniquely across our primary geographic axes:
- In Europe: The friction between standard national languages, the promotion of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in higher education, and the integration of migrant repertoires within inherently plurilingual frameworks.
- In MENA: The fluid coexistence of Modern Standard Arabic, diverse dialectal vernaculars (Diglossia/Multiglossia), and historical European languages (English and French).
- Globally: The widespread deployment of code-switching, translarguaging, and hybrid discourse practices as legitimate semiotic resources in academic, digital, and professional settings.
(Song and Sercu, 2025; Tange, 2007; Block, 2005; Falchetta, 2024; Gasparini, 2024; Lestari and Prakoso, 2026; Mayoma, 2026; Canagarajah, 2005)
2. The Epistemological Evolution of the Discipline:
In recent decades, Applied Linguistics has undergone significant expansion, increasingly transitioning from a historically Western-export model to an autonomous, globally decentralized discipline that values indigenous and locally grounded knowledge. This maturation prompts critical, self-reflexive scholarly reflection:
- How does Applied Linguistics structurally and theoretically evolve when freed from Eurocentric or Anglo-centric assumptions?
- To what extent do contemporary research methodologies across Europe, MENA, and elsewhere prioritize local socio-educational challenges and regional epistemologies?
- How can international collaborations actively foster epistemic justice, inter-epistemic translation, and de-colonial alternatives in research design?
(Song and Sercu,2025; Canagarajah, 2005; Pfadenhauer, Rüdiger, and Serreli, 2024; Schlumpf, 2024; Gasparini, 2024)
3. Language Education and Evolving Pedagogical Practices:
Language education globally is undergoing profound structural and pedagogical mutations driven by macro-policy reforms and micro-classroom realities. The conference highlights three parallel axes of inquiry:
- The Global Trajectory of English Language Teaching (ELT): Interrogating the expansion of English as a perceived catalyst for socioeconomic mobility. This invites critical scrutiny regarding the tensions between imported methodologies and local adaptations, linguistic imperialism versus teacher agency, and the dismantling of the "native-speaker myth" through Global Englishes paradigms.
- Continental & Regional Policy Realities: Examining how educational systems balance global demands with regional identities. This includes Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) adaptations, the "Englishization" versus Arabization debates in MENA higher education, and postcolonial language-of-instruction dynamics globally.
- Minority, Indigenous, and Revitalized Languages: A comparative look at the pedagogy, policy, and systemic revitalization of minoritized languages, such as regional minority languages in Europe (e.g., Basque, Celtic languages) and Amazigh in North Africa, serving as critical loci for identity preservation and linguistic human rights.
(Song and Sercu, 2025; Canagarajah, 2005; Lin et al, 2005; Tange, 2007; Pfadenhauer, Rüdiger, and Serreli, 2024)
4. The Digital Frontier: Artificial Intelligence and Mediated Communication:
The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), advanced natural language processing (NLP), and large language models (LLMs) has radically transformed language use, learning paradigms, and research methodologies globally. This digital revolution prompts vital comparative questions:
- How are AI-augmented language education tools altering learner autonomy and syntactic mastery across different linguistic typologies?
- What are the pedagogical affordances of AI-driven multimodal tools in teaching high-resource versus low-resource or minoritized languages?
- How effectively do current LLMs process localized, hybrid, and code-switched discourse (e.g., Arabic-English, French-Arabic, or multi-ethnic European urban vernaculars)?
- Crucially, how do we address algorithmic bias, data privacy, and the systemic technological marginalization of underrepresented regional dialects and non-Western scripts?
(Song and Sercu, 2025; Mayoma, 2026; Prakoso, 2026; Canagarajah, 2005)
0 Comments