Monday, March 18, 2013

Tentative timeline for the CLaSIC 2012 Book

Dear participants,
 
Please note the tentative timeline for the CLaSIC 2012 Book.
 
April- Internal Review
July, August- External Review
September, October- Selection
 
We will notify you through email if your paper is selected for the book publication once the selection is made.
 
Thank you for your kind attention.
 
Regards,
 
CLaSIC 2012 Orginising Committee

Monday, December 17, 2012

CLaSIC : Post-Conference Communication

Dear all,

CLaSIC 2012, organized by the Centre for Language Studies (CLS) of the National University of Singapore (NUS), has come to a successful conclusion. The conference has brought together academics, researchers and professionals in language teaching and related disciplines from around the world for a highly invigorating exchange of insights, experiences, views and perspectives, especially on the importance and impact of the target language culture and its perspectives, practices and products in foreign language education. We had the opportunity to hear from three expert and stimulating keynote speakers, Professor Michael Byram, Professor Kimi Kondo-Brown and Professor Claire Kramsch, as well as from so many other colleagues in the parallel/poster sessions and the symposium on Asian languages teaching. We hope you had enjoyed not just the academic sessions and discussions but also the social programme we had planned for you.

We are happy to announce that the CLS will be preparing a book of selected papers from CLaSIC 2012, which will be published by a reputed international publishing house, De Gruyter Mouton, based in Berlin and Boston. The editors of the book with the working title “Culture in Foreign Language Learning: Framing and Reframing the Issue” will be Wai Meng Chan, Sunil Kumar Bhatt, Masanori Nagami and Izumi Walker. We expect that 15-20 papers will be selected eventually for inclusion in the book, with the expert help of a Scientific Committee consisting of Professor Michael Byram, Professor Anna Uhl Chamot, Professor Lesley Harbon, Professor Kimi Kondo-Brown, Professor Claire Kramsch, Professor Naoki Sugino, Professor Swathi Vanniarajan and Dr Weiping Wu. Presenters who have yet to submit their full papers or would like to revise them are invited to submit their papers to
clasic2012@nus.edu.sg by 31 January 2013. The publication of the book is targeted for the 3rd quarter of 2014.

The CLaSIC 2012 Organising Committee would like to thank all participants and presenters for your tremendous support of the conference and for your contributions to its success. We will inform you in good time of the call for papers for CLaSIC 2014 and certainly hope to greet you again then as our guests and as members of our CLaSIC community.

With warm regards,
Ms Lin Chiung Yao
Chairperson
CLaSIC 2012 Organising Committee
Centre for Language Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
National University of Singapore


Monday, August 27, 2012

CLaSIC 2012 First Conference Update

Conference Update 1 (August 2012)

Registration 
We would like to request all paper/poster presenters to register for CLaSIC 20 by 7 September 2012. The deadline is required to prepare a detailed conference programme (including the schedule of presentations) by October. Presenters who have not registered by the deadline stated above cannot be included in the programme. Please register for the conference by using our online system available at http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/clasic2012/Registration.htm if you have yet to do so. (Presenters please use CLaSIC 2012 Account Password sent from "clasic2012@nus.edu.sg" when you submitted your proposal.) To take advantage of the discounted early bird registration fee of SGD 420, we would also like to advise non-presenting participants to register for the conference by 30 September 2012. Thereafter the fee will be SGD 490. We would like to request that the payment reaches us within 2 weeks after the registration. If we do not receive or are unable to confirm your payment of the registration fee 2 weeks after your registration, we will send you a gentle reminder by e-mail. We regret that we are unable to accept on-site payment at the conference. Payment must be made prior to the conference by the stated payment modes. We accept the following two modes of payment: VISA/Master card, or bank draft. The bank draft should be made out to the National University of Singapore with the name and the registration number on the reverse side and be mailed to the following address: Centre for Language Studies Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences National University of Singapore AS4/02-05, 9 Arts Link Singapore 117570 2.

Accommodations 
Accommodations have been arranged for international participants who wish to stay at the official conference hotel, The Elizabeth Hotel, at preferential rates with free transportation provided from hotel to campus in the morning and back to hotel in the evening after the conference. To make your online hotel reservation and enjoy the preferential rates, please visit http://www.fareasthospitality.com/hotels/theelizabeth/nus or access our CLaSIC homepage and choose Accommodation. Should you have queries, please email Ms Eva Lau at evalau@fareast.com.sg at The Elizabeth Hotel: Alternative Accommodations: Contact Information of The Elizabeth Hotel: THE ELIZABETH HOTEL 24 Mount Elizabeth Singapore 228518 Tel : +65 6738 1188 Fax : +65 6732 3866 Email: evalau@fareast.com.sg For information on other hotels in Singapore, please refer to the Official Singapore Tourism Website, http://accommodation.yoursingapore.com/ given provided under the link ‘Accommodation’, CLaSIC homepage.

Requirements for Entry into Singapore 
All international participants are requested to check the following requirements for entry into Singapore. • A passport with at least 6 months validity; • Valid Singapore visa, if applicable; • Sufficient funds to last for the intended period of stay in Singapore; • Confirmed onward/return tickets (where applicable); and • Entry facilities to their onward destinations, e.g. visas. Should you need to apply for an entry visa to Singapore, please register for our conference first and then send us a request for a supporting document, if required, for the application. We would like to advise those who need an entry visa to go through the application procedures early, as it may take some time for your application to be processed and approved. For further details on the requirements for entry into Singapore, please refer to the following website of the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore: http://www.ica.gov.sg/services_centre_overview.aspx?pageid=252&secid=165

Conference Programme 
The detailed programme will be made available at the conference homepage http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/clasic2012/Conference_Programme.htm by around October.

Conference Publications 
There will be two publications in connection with CLaSIC 2012. The Centre for Language Studies intends to publish a book of selected papers from the conference. This book will be refereed by a specially appointed committee. In addition to this, we will also be publishing the full proceedings of the conference as a USB-Drive (ISBN will be applied for). A USB-Drive has several advantages, e.g. a shorter production time, lower production costs, and greater portability. This will make it possible for us to produce and distribute the proceedings at no additional charge in time for the conference. Furthermore it will not be an additional load on your luggage. We would like to request all presenters to send us the manuscripts of their papers by 19 October 2012 for inclusion in the USB-Drive proceedings. The style sheet for paper is downloadable at our website: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/clasic2012/Stylesheet.htm. Kindly cooperate by adhering as closely to the style sheet as possible. This will be of great assistance to us for the timely production of the proceedings. As we will be publishing the conference proceedings as a USB-Drive, there is no limitation on the length of the manuscripts submitted. However, please try to keep the size of the files to be submitted to within 1 MB wherever possible, as e-mails with extremely large attachments may fail to arrive. Especially, please try to compress graphic images included in your manuscript. If you wish, you may also send your manuscripts on a CD-ROM to the following person and address:

Dr. Izumi walker CLaSIC 2012 Organising Committee Centre for Language Studies Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences National University of Singapore AS4/02-05, 9 Arts Link Singapore 117570

Poster presenters may send us full papers or the main gist of their presentations in point form, complete with any illustrations to be included in their poster presentations. 6. Presentation Time Each paper presentation will be allotted a time of 30 minutes, with 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Keynote lectures will be of 45 minutes' duration, with 35 minutes for the lecture and 10 minutes for discussion.

Poster Presentation
A 40-minute session on the first and second conference day will be allocated to poster presentations. During the 40 minutes, presenters will have to be present at their posters to answer any questions or to provide further elaborations. Those who are doing an electronic poster (e.g. using a notebook computer) will have to provide their own notebook computers with a wireless network adapter, if internet access is required. Further details of the poster presentation (e.g. available space for each poster presentation, size of the board) will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.

Photocopying/Handouts
Unfortunately, we are unable to provide photocopying facilities at the conference site and would thus like to request presenters to bring sufficient copies of any handouts for your paper or poster presentations.

Receipts
In general, all official receipts for payment received will be issued to participants at the conference in December. However, an e-mail confirmation will be sent to participants once payment has been processed. If you require the official receipt earlier, please send an e-mail request with your forwarding address to clasic2012@nus.edu.sg.

Information about Singapore
To facilitate our international participants’ travel to and stay in Singapore, we have compiled a list of useful websites. These links are available at our homepage http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/clasic2012/About_Singapore.htm. Please click the links named ‘About Singapore’ and ‘Transportation’.


Best Regards,

CLaSIC 2012 Organizing Committee



Tuesday, February 7, 2012

THE 5TH CLS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CLaSIC 2012 : CALL FOR PAPERS

Dear Sir or Madam,

The Centre for Language Studies (CLS) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) organises a biennial international conference on foreign language teaching and learning. The conference aims at bringing together academics, researchers and professionals from Asia and beyond for a productive and rewarding exchange of insights, experiences, views and perspectives on current and future developments in foreign language teaching and learning. The last four CLaSICs met with resounding success and a highly encouraging response, attracting many participants from all over the world.

We are pleased to announce the Fifth CLS International Conference (CLaSIC 2012) to be held from 6 to 8 December 2012. The theme of the conference is:

“CULTURE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING: FRAMING AND REFRAMING THE ISSUE”

We would like to invite you and your colleagues to participate in this conference and to present papers on the sub-themes listed in the Call for the Papers below. We would be most grateful if you could circulate the information about the conference within your institution and enclosed please find a PDF copy of the conference brochure for this purpose. If you require more information, please feel free to email the CLaSIC 2012 Organising Committee at clasic2012@nus.edu.sg

Invited Keynote Speakers
We are delighted that the following four distinguished academics, all leading researchers and educators in language education and applied linguistics, will be delivering keynote lectures at CLaSIC 2012:

Michael Byram (Durham University)
Shengli Feng (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Kimi Kondo-Brown (University of Hawai’i at Manoa)
Claire Kramsch (University of California Berkeley)

Call for Papers
CLaSIC 2012 Organising Committee invites submissions for Paper and Poster Presentations on one of the following thirteen sub-themes:
-Culture and culture awareness in foreign language learning
-Instructional approaches for culture teaching
-Intercultural language teaching
-Culture, identity and motivation
-Acculturation and language socialization
-Heritage language education
-Assessment and evaluation in the teaching of culture
-Curriculum and materials development for culture teaching
-Educating teachers for culture teaching
-Ethnographic approaches to language teaching
-Study abroad and language contact
-Transculturalism in foreign language learning
-Sociolinguistics and foreign language teaching
-Other topics

Presentation proposals can be submitted online at the following URL, latest by 31 May 2012: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/clasic2012/Proposal_Submission.htm
The language medium for all presentations at the conference is English.

Registration
Registration for the conference will commence from 1 May 2012. Registration fees are as follows.
Early Bird Fee (on or before 30 September 2012): SGD 420
Regular Fee (after 30 September 2012): SGD 490

Conference Venue
We are happy to announce the conference venue, which will be the National University of Singapore, Kent Ridge Campus, Shaw Foundation Alumni House.

Further information
To keep you informed of the latest update of the CLaSIC 2012, it is recommended to check the homepage on a regular basis.

CLaSIC 2012 homepage – http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/clasic2012/

Information about the CLS can be found at the following URL:

CLS homepage – http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/cls/

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to email the Organising Committee at clasic2012@nus.edu.sg.

Thank you very much for your kind attention and assistance. We look forward to seeing you and your colleagues at CLaSIC 2012.

With warm regards,

Lin Chiung Yao
Chairperson
CLaSIC 2012 Organising Committee
Centre for Language Studies
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
National University of Singapore