2025 Ranacles Conference : call for papers

Plurality of learning in Language Centres

 The 31st RANACLES Conference (2024), dedicated to all forms of unconventional practices in language learning and teaching, revealed a great diversity in our language centers. In line with this diversity, the 2025 Conference aims to explore more broadly the plurality of learning that centers seek to trigger, encourage and strengthen.

The term “Language Center” itself covers a variety of realities with “almost as many titles as there are structures” (Brudermann et al., 2016, §6). “Indeed, there are “maisons des langues”, “language departments”, “language services”, “language centers” and only one UFR LANSAD [faculty of languages for specialists of non-language disciplines], at the University of Lorraine” (Vega Umaña, 2021, p. 221). The status and backgrounds of the people who work there are just as varied. “Indeed, teaching practices are many and varied, because there is diversity of context, teaching location, teacher status and student profile” (Chaplier, 2022, p. 3812).

Thus, the present Conference will welcome proposals for papers aimed at providing an overview of this plurality of practices, profiles and learning in these different structures. What languages are studied? With what objectives? What is the place of languages for specific purposes (LSP)? What plurilingual practices, such as intercomprehension between languages, are being developed? Are learning strategies being transferred? And, above all, can we identify common themes and issues in this diversity of contexts, languages and cultures, and learning systems?

This plural framework is reflected in the diversity of approaches and practices, inviting us to refine their characterization while offering an overall vision. In the field of didactics of English for specialists of other disciplines, for example, this plurality is reflected in the absence of a unified theory or method of analysis (Chaplier & O'Connell, 2015). Similarly, research in the didactics of English for specific purposes (ESP) relies on “theoretical eclecticism” and varied methodological frameworks (Belan et al., 2023). This Conference seeks to explore these dynamics by extending the reflection to other languages and questioning the impact of this diversity on learning in language centers.

Proposals for papers, in French or English, can be in any of the three areas, and should take the form of a 250–300-word summary (not including bibliographical references) and 2 to 5 key words. Both pedagogical notes (in “workshop” or “poster” format) and research papers (in “presentation” or “poster” format) are welcome.

• Submission deadline: 15 May 2025 on https://ranacles2025.sciencesconf.org
• Contact: ranacles2025@univ-nantes.fr