About the Conference

Tēnā koutou katoa (Greetings all)

Dear Colleagues and Friends

Owen G Glen BuildingThe Organising Committee is pleased to invite you to participate in the 4th International Conference on Language, Education and Diversity (LED 2015).

The conference is to be held 23-26 November 2015 in the Owen Glenn Building, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Workshops will also be available for participants during the day prior to the conference opening (evening of 23 November).

Convened by Professor Stephen May, LED is an international conference series which focuses specifically on the impact of increased cultural linguistic diversity, at both national and supranational levels, and its consequences for the theory, policy and practice of language education. As such, LED provides an international forum that brings together the latest academic and policy discussions, and promotes critical debate, on the often-complex interconnections between diversity and language education.

The LED conference is held every four years and is the fourth of its kind. The three previous LED conferences have all been widely acclaimed. The 1st LED conference (2003) attracted 400 delegates, from over 30 countries, the 2nd (2007), 500 delegates from over 40 countries, the 3rd (2011), 400 delegates from over 30 countries, and all included key academics and policy makers in the language and education fields.

As with its predecessors, LED 2015 will focus on language and education, with particular reference to addressing/accommodating diversity. Within this broad focus, there will be specific conference streams on:

  • English language education
  • Literacy education (including school-, adult- and multi-literacies)
  • Language education planning and policy
  • Bilingual/immersion education

As with its predecessors, we believe that LED 2015 will be pivotal to the ongoing development of the language education field, and more specifically, to highlighting and exploring the latest theory, policy and practice of language education in relation to diversity.

We look forward greatly to your participation in the LED 2015 conference.

Nāku noa, nā
Yours sincerely

Professor Stephen May
Conference Convenor and Chair
Te Puna Wānanga (the School of Māori Education)
Faculty of Education
University of Auckland
(on behalf of the Organising Committee)