CercleS – the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education – is pleased to invite you to the XVIII CercleS International Conference 2024, “Multilingualism & the Anglosphere” between 12-14 September 2024. The event will be hosted by AULC at Durham University.

As our communities have emerged from the pandemic, the previous two CercleS conferences in Brno (2020) and Porto (2022) have each looked towards a future, where language centres explore different pathways in an increasingly digital world.  The 2024 conference in Durham wishes to continue and develop the narratives that have arisen from these past conferences. The 2024 conference will take place in Durham, and our theme of ‘Multilingualism in the Anglosphere’ recognises our collective interest in multilingualism, with the predominance of English as a second language of tuition across Europe, discussed in the United Kingdom.  In the UK, the value placed on the learning of languages other than English is reduced by the fact that English is so widely studied as a second language. Nevertheless, from a UK perspective we recognise that language and inter-cultural skills remain critical for our international endeavours, and that in a globally connected world, English will never be enough.  Furthermore, the UK is itself a multilingual country, with a small but significant proportion of our fellow citizens speaking other first languages. Whilst the value of the study of English is recognised for its value, it is equally important to maintain a breadth of language competence across all languages to address the challenges and opportunities of the future.  As such, the XVIII CercleS conference in Durham intends to be a celebration of multilingualism, and to explore how we, as a community of international scholars, will continue to support multilingual approaches that include global English and all other languages.

For this conference, we would like to attract abstracts that respond to the core interests of our community and will allow us to collectively engage in sharing best practices for teaching and learning to inspire our students, support our colleagues, and identify areas for development and improvement.

We now call for contributions including, but not necessarily limited to, the thematic areas below by 16:00 Friday 16th February 2024.  Some further suggestions for topics of interest within these themes can be found on the conference website.

Any questions, email the conference organising team cercles.2024@durham.ac.uk