The International Conference

on Chinese Pedagogy

The general theme of this conference is Chinese pedagogy, including a broad range of related topics, and its main goals are to promote Chinese language education and to increase communication channels among Chinese language teaching professionals. Chinese teachers from many parts of the world will attend the meeting. During and after the meeting there will be tour activities. Conference proceedings will be published. For more information, please visit this web page:
http://nts.lll.hawaii.edu/tedyao/clta/0399update/conwuhanx.htm

International Symposium on Topic and Focus in Chinese

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The symposium is jointly organized by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong and Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks (with 10 minutes for discussion) in all areas of research on topic and focus from any theoretical perspectives with special emphasis on Chinese or Chinese in comparison with other languages. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, syntax, semantics, phonology, and language acquisition. Papers from interdisciplinary areas are encouraged.

Abstracts may be written in Chinese or English and should be no more than one standard size page (A4 or letter size) in length. Abstracts should be in at least 12-point type with margins of at least 1-inch, single-spaced. Please provide four copies of an anonymous abstract and one camera-ready original with the name(s) of author(s) and affiliation. Along with the abstract send a 3" x 5" card listing: (1) title of the paper, (2) name(s) of the author(s), (3) affiliation(s), (4) mailing address, and (5) email address. Submissions are limited to a maximum of one individual and one joint abstract per author. Abstracts should be sent to the following address. Email and fax submissions cannot be accepted. Deadline for receipt of abstracts is December 31, 1999. Notification of acceptance will be sent by email by March 15, 2000. A selection of papers will be considered for publication after the symposium.

International Symposium on Topic and Focus in Chinese, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, HONG KONG

Inquiries can be addressed to ctswtang@polyu.edu.hk. For more information, visit the website at http://www.polyu.edu.hk/~cbs/conference.htm.

The Third Annual Conference of the National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) will be held May 6-8, 2000, at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn Westpark Hotel in Rosslyn, VA. The theme for this year’s NCOLCTL Conference is "Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs) in the Working World: Needs and Responses." Proposals are being solicited for individual papers, roundtable panels and poster sessions. The deadline for receipt of proposals is November 1, 1999. If interested in submitting a proposal, please refer to the guidelines at the following website: www.councilnet.org/pages/CNet_Announcements.html#NCOLCTL3. For other questions regarding the conference, contact Scott McGinnis, NCOLCTL Executive Director, National Foreign Language Center, 1619 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, #400, Washington, DC 20036. Office phone: 202 667-8100 x15; Fax: 202-667-6907; E-mail: smcginnis@nflc.org.

The two-day Lao She Symposium seeks to generate awareness among the local, national, and international academic communities of the esteemed SMU Britt Towery/Lao She Collection, which will be dedicated during the symposium’s opening events. The symposium will bring together widely known scholars whoshare an interest in the life of Chinese writer Lao She and who will provide intellectual discourse on the societal impact of Lao She’s writings, not only in China but abroad, as well. The symposium is free and open to the public. For registration and more information please contact the following person or visit the website: Lisa Chang Ahnert c/o Lisa Hickok, Dedman College - Asian Studies Program, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750235, Dallas, TX 75275-0235. Phone: 214/768-2440; Fax: 214-768-4129;E-mail: lhickok@mail.smu.edu; URL: http://fllc.smu.edu/fllc/languages/chinese/laoshe

Westin Long Beach Hotel, Long Beach, California

California State University at Long Beach, the Center for Applied Linguistics, and the National Foreign Language Center invite you to participate in the inaugural event of a major new national initiative.

This conference will be the first major project of the Heritage Languages Initiative, a national effort to develop the languages of our heritage communities through strengthening the educational institutions that work with them. Participants in the conference will share knowledge and resources with some of the leading figures in heritage language education in the United States. Equally important, participants will have the unprecedented opportunity to help shape the development of the heritage language field by articulating a national agenda on the preservation and cultivation of heritage languages as rich national resources. This work will be facilitated by task forces that will be established at the conference to address issues that include articulation across programs, teacher preparation, materials development, instructional strategies, assessment, and public advocacy.

Representatives from five important constituencies will participate in this conference