TIRF – The International Research Foundation for English Language Education – established the James E. Alatis Prize for Research on Language Policy and Planning in Educational Contexts to honour the contributions of its association founder and leader to the field. Nominations are now invited for the 2020 TIRF Alatis Prize competition.

Nominations are now invited for outstanding articles or chapters that were published during the calendar years of 2018 or 2019. TIRF will only consider publications nominated by someone other than the author(s) of the published work. Individuals may only nominate one article/chapter per competition year. An author may have only one article/chapter under review per competition year. TIRF Trustees are ineligible to be nominated for the Alatis Prize.

A prize of $500 will be awarded for an article or chapter published in English and dealing with some aspect of language policy or planning in educational contexts. Submissions may be articles published in scholarly peer-reviewed journals or peer-reviewed chapters in edited books.

Nominations are due by 1 October 1 2019. For more information about TIRF’s Alatis Prize, including the nomination procedures, please visit https://www.tirfonline.org/grants-prizes/alatis-prize/.

Colloquium Dates: 27-29 November 2019

Venue: University of Western Australia

Theme: “Exchanges: people, knowledge, cultures”

Confirmed keynote speakers: Charles Forsdick (Liverpool), Joseph Lo Bianco (Melbourne), Jakelin Troy (Sydney), Virginia Yip (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Stephen Matthews (Hong Kong)

Earlybird Registration: until 31 August 2019

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Two teachers of Australian Indigenous languages are the joint winners of the Patji-Dawes Award – Australia’s premier award for achievement in teaching languages other than English.

Sophia Mung, a Gija woman from Purnululu (East Kimberley, WA), has been recognised for decades of tireless work to ensure the Gija language is passed down to future generations.

Brother Stephen Morelli is a Christian Brother, teacher and linguist who has worked closely with Aboriginal communities on the mid-north coast of NSW for over 30 years to revive and teach the Gumbaynggirr language.

See the recent story at https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/indigenous-language-teachers-win-nations-top-prize/11294722

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LCNAU is pleased to be supporting and maintaining University Languages Portal Australia (ULPA). With the support of the LCNAU Heads’ Cluster, the website has been updated to contain current information, and will be reviewed each year.  Its coverage of higher level courses will commence in 2020. We encourage all of our members to ensure that their institutions have links to the site in order to ensure that students and colleagues are aware of language availability across the sector.

To spread the word amongst your colleagues about this exciting development for the languages sector, encourage them to view this short animated video!

Memberships for the 2019-2020 financial year are now open.

As LCNAU memberships correspond to the financial year, all memberships become due for renewal on July 1. In order to benefit from reduced members’ rates for the 2019 LCNAU colloquium, you need to be a current member and to show proof of current membership at time of registration.

Earlybird registrations for the colloquium are available until 31 August 2019, which means that now is a good time to update your membership, and to encourage other colleagues to join or renew.

Join or renew here.