10th Anniversary Conference of English as a Lingua Franca

12-15 June 2017, Helsinki

The University of Helsinki ELFA group warmly welcomes you to the 10th Anniversary Conference of English as a Lingua Franca. After a grand world tour of ELF conferences through Southampton (2009), Vienna (2010), Hong Kong (2011), Istanbul (2012), Rome (2013), Athens (2014), Beijing (2015) and Lleida (2016), ELF10 now returns to its roots in Helsinki where the first ELF conference was held. Over the years, ELF conferences have grown and ELF has established itself, attracting attention of both academics and language practitioners worldwide. It is time to celebrate the achievements and explore future vistas.  With two ‘Changing English’ conferences (2013 and 2015), our Helsinki group has established a profile of linguists eager to push the boundaries and explore possibilities of cross-fertilisation between different approaches to contemporary change in English. For us, ELF is a pivotal driver of change in English, and in the perception of language for theoretical and practical purposes. In this conference, we incorporate cutting edge viewpoints of evolutionary linguistics, complexity theory, human cognition, varieties of English and historical sociolinguistics at the same time letting ELF take the lead, as the selection of the invited speakers and colloquium conveners suggests. We hope that this conference will serve as another stepping stone in bridging the gap between ELF, different traditions of English studies, and Applied Linguistics, and help to further promote and consolidate collaboration between them.

We are honoured that the following invited speakers and colloquium conveners have already confirmed their participation in the conference:

Keynote speakers

• William Croft, University of New Mexico
• Ewa D№browska, Northumbria University
• Mikko Laitinen, University of Eastern Finland
• Janus Mortensen, University of Copenhagen
• Terttu Nevalainen, University of Helsinki

Invited colloquium conveners

• Jennifer Jenkins, University of Southampton
• Barbara Seidlhofer, University of Vienna
• Henry Widdowson, University of Vienna

We invite proposals for presentation in any ELF related area. Presentations and colloquia combining two or more perspectives will be especially appreciated.

The submission of proposals for special colloquia has closed. However, we still accept abstracts for paper and poster presentations. These should be submitted via the conference website. A full paper presentation will be allowed 20 minutes with five minutes for questions and discussion (25 minutes total). Abstracts should be 150-200 words long (excluding references) and include 3-5 keywords. Please format your references according to the “Unified style sheet for linguistics”, a copy of which will be provided on the conference website. Abstract submission closes on 1 December 2016. Abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by the scientific committee, and notifications of acceptance will be sent out by 15 February 2017.

For more information on the conference, please see the conference website: http://www.helsinki.fi/elf10/2017

You can contact us by writing to info@elf10.org

Welcome to Helsinki in 2017!

Anna Mauranen, Svetlana Vetchinnikova,

Ida Mauko and the ELFA group