Keynote Speakers

Christine Hélot has been a professor of English and Sociolinguistics in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Strasbourg (France) since 1991. Previously (from 1975 to 1990) she held a post of lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the National University of Ireland (Maynooth College) where she was the director of the Language Centre. As a sociolinguist, her research focuses on language in education policies in France and in Europe, bi-multilingual education, intercultural education, language awareness, early childhood education, and children’s literature and multiliteracy. She holds a PhD from Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland) and was awarded a Habilitation by the University of Strasbourg. Since 2009, Dr. Hélot has been a regular participant in the Master’s in Bilingual Education program run by the University Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla, Spain). During 2011/2012, she was a guest professor at the Goethe University of Frankfurt Am Main (Germany) in the Institute for Romance Languages and Literatures. She has published widely in French and English. Her recent books include Children’s Literature in Multilingual Classrooms (2014, with Sneddon and Daly), Développement du langage et plurilinguisme chez le jeune enfant (2013, with Rubio), Language Policy for the Multilingual Classroom: Pedagogy of the Possible (2011, with Ó’Laoire).

Elizabeth Lanza is Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, and Director of the Center on Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, Norway. Her research focuses on multilingualism; she has published on language socialization of bilingual children, identity in migrant narratives, language ideology, linguistic landscape, language policy, and research methodology. Her current project addresses the role of family language policy in transcultural families in Norway. Her work has appeared in various journals and edited volumes. She is on the editorial board of the journals International Journal of Bilingualism, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Linguistic Landscape, and Multilingual Margins, and the book series IMPACT: Studies in Language and Society.

Diane Larsen-Freeman is Professor Emerita of Education, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, and Research Scientist Emerita at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was also a Faculty Associate of the Center for Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan. Dr. Larsen-Freeman has been a frequent conference speaker and has published extensively. One of her books, Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics, published by Oxford University Press in 2008 and co-authored with Lynne Cameron, received the 2009 Kenneth W. Mildenberger prize from the Modern Language Association. Also in 2009, the Hellenic American University conferred on Dr. Larsen-Freeman an honorary Doctoral Degree in Humanities. Dr. Larsen-Freeman was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Innsbruck in 2010 and the American Association for Applied Linguistics’ Distinguished Scholarship and Service Award in 2011. Her current major research program centers on the understanding and application of complexity theory to language development and other areas in Applied Linguistics.

Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Linguistics Program at Florida International University, in Miami, Florida, USA. Previously, she served as Co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Bilingualism and Professor of Psychology at Bangor University, Wales. She has worked extensively on children's language acquisition, both in monolingual and in bilingual children, focusing especially on Spanish-English and Welsh-English bilinguals. She has headed many projects concerning bilingual linguistic abilities and bilingual assessment--a Welsh Language Board project on language transmission, ESRC projects studying Welsh language development and investigating cognitive effects of bilingualism across the life-span, and Welsh Assembly Government-funded projects developing assessment measures for Welsh-English-speaking children. She has published extensively on language development in monolinguals and bilinguals and recently published two new volumes on Issues in the Assessment of Bilinguals and Solutions for the Assessment of Bilinguals, Multilingual Matters.