During the 2020 conference of the international association for applied linguistics (AILA) in Groningen, the Netherlands, three symposia will focus on sign linguistics and deaf education. We hereby invite you all to submit a paper to one or more of them. All of AILA is organised in the form of these type of symposia on specific topics. They typically take half a day, but may be extended if there are a lot of contributions. In addition to one invited speaker, there is space for five on-stage presentations and five posters.

Dates: 9-14 August 2020
Place: Groningen, The Netherlands
Deadline: September 16 of this year (so rather soon!)

Your submission will need to include the following:
• Author(s) and affiliation(s)
• Title: max. 20 Words
• Abstract: max. 300 Words
• Summary for in program: max. 50 Words

Link: https://www.aila2020.nl/call-for-papers
On the site, you will also find the longer descriptions of the symposia.

We are still discussing with the AILA organisers how we can best provide international sign interpreting services, making sure that the three symposia below will be planned on consecutive days and not simultaneously, and ensuring interpreting of the keynotes on those days.

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Symposium S121: Promoting sign languages specifically by teaching them
Convenor: Onno Crasborn (Radboud University)
Invited speaker: Prof. Graham Turner (Herriot Watt University)

The turn to mainstream education for their deaf children is a threat both for the possibility of the child to grow up bilingually (spoken + sign language), and for the vitality of signed languages. How can we ensure sign language teaching in mainstream schools, for both deaf and hearing children?

Symposium S159: Sign language for all?
Convenor: Onno Crasborn (Radboud University)
Invited speaker: Dr. Krister Schönström (Stockholm University)

Large proportions of society would benefit from more visual communication. Should sign language be taught to everyone? What would this do to the core sign language users, deaf community members? This symposium invites contributions discussing either linguistic or ethical aspects of this question.

Symposium S085: Language teaching in deaf education: practices and challenges
Convenor: Marjon Tammenga-Helmantel (University of Groningen)
Invited speakers: Prof. Lodenir Karnopp (UFRGS, Brasil); Dianne Bekkers, MA & Lisa Hinderks (Kentalis, the Netherlands)

This symposium (including school visit) explores the challenges for language teaching in deaf education including the perspectives of teachers, parents, students, and school boards. We intend to provide a platform to exchange and share experiences and insights from both research and teaching practice. Special interest is reserved for teaching materials.