Heritage Language Week 2025

Call for abstracts:

5th Heritage Language Week 2025 in Frankfurt am Main

Dear Colleagues,

In commemoration of the International Mother Language Day, the Language Centers of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and the Goethe University are pleased to announce the fifth annual Heritage Language Week with the theme “Diversity and Sustainability in Heritage-Language Teaching”.

The event will take place from February 19 to 21, 2025 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Call for abstracts: We invite all students, teachers, educators, coordinators and professionals in the field of heritage languages to submit abstracts for talks or poster presentations from September 10 to December 4, 2024. These should focus on the general topic of the specifics of heritage-language teaching. We particularly welcome contributions on the topics of diversity, equality and inclusion in the didactics of heritage languages. Presentations should be approximately 20 minutes long, followed by a 5-minute discussion round.

Aim and Format:

The aim of the Heritage Language Week is to raise awareness of heritage-language teaching and to provide a platform for the exchange of best practices in the field of heritage-language didactics at schools and universities.

The event will be held in the format of a “Best-Practice Exchange”, in which the participants will have the opportunity to exchange methods and techniques in heritage-language teaching.

Contributions to the plenary sessions: You can submit a contribution to a plenary session. Working languages: German/English.
Sessions for specific heritage languages: You can suggest a parallel session for the respective heritage language you are working with. At least four contributions in the same language are required for the parallel session to take place. You can propose a specific topic and we will confirm at a later stage if there are enough participants for the session. Working language: the language of the proposed session.

Potential topics of interest:

Students with special educational needs in heritage language lessons
Use of artificial intelligence in heritage-language teaching
Use of literary texts, movies or music in heritage-language teaching
Intercultural communication in the heritage-language classroom
Intersectionality: language, culture and multiple identities
New methods of assessment in heritage-language teaching
Innovative approaches in curriculum development
Organization of study trips, creation of podcasts and posters in the context of heritage-language teaching.
Development of self-learning opportunities in the heritage-language program
Sustainability in heritage-language teaching
Role of student assistants in the heritage-language program
UNIcert^®and Heritage Language Programm

Submission of abstracts:

Please send us your unpublished abstracts (max. 300 words) in German or English. Include the following information: title, author(s), short biography (max. 100 words), institution, address and a contact address of the corresponding author. Please also indicate whether you wish to hold an oral presentation or submit a poster.

Important Dates:

Submission of abstracts: from August 21 to December 4, 2024
Notification of confirmation to authors: by December 5, 2024
Announcement of the preliminary program: December 5, 2024
Registration: starting December 5, 2024 (participation in the Heritage Language Week is free of charge.)

Please note that the event will only take place in person; online or recorded presentations cannot be accepted.

We look forward to your contributions and an inspiring Heritage Language Week 2025!