New literacies in language learning and teaching: Selected papers from EUROCALL 2003

Abstract

Contained within this issue is a selection of papers presented at the 2003 annual EUROCALL Conference, hosted during September in Limerick, Ireland. This was the second time that Ireland had the privilege of welcoming EUROCALLers, the first being the conference at Dublin City University in 1997 organised by Françoise Blin. The theme of EUROCALL 2003, “New literacies in language learning and teaching”, aimed to focus attention on the changing concepts and practices concerning literacy brought about by technological developments, particularly in relation to language learning and teaching. Sub-themes focused on the changes in practices involving literacy brought about by the World Wide Web; the need to re-interpret current teaching paradigms; the relationship between the more “traditional” language skills and the “new literacies”; interactivity, learner interaction, and feedback; and spoken and written corpora in language teaching and learning. This last theme re-introduced to EUROCALL an important research area which had been well represented in the early days of the association, and has led directly to the creation of a new SIG within the association in March 2004.