Bilingualism and Academic Achievement Research Conference

The University Of Texas Health Science Center At Houston, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support a bilingual research conference, "Bilingualism and Academic Achievement." The conference will bring together approximately 80 researchers from diverse disciplines and academic institutions who engage in research on bilingualism across the life-span, with an emphasis on school-aged children. The meeting will facilitate interactions among these scholars, enabling them to discuss the current state of knowledge in this research domain, identify productive new lines of inquiry, and enhance the potential for future collaborative activity. The meeting will also enable discussions leading to the creation of a plan for a triannual Bilingual Research Conference. Finally, the conference will result in a special issue of a journal that will include select conference papers on the implications and application of bilingualism research for the education of bilingual children in PK-12 instruction. This conference will facilitate discussions among scientists from this broad multidisciplinary research community, and will focus on research that bears on bilingualism in relation to academic achievement in language, literacy, STEM, and other subject-area domains. Major topics to be addressed during the conference include instructional interventions for bilingual learners, assessment of bilingual learners, cross-language influences on language and literacy development, and cognitive factors that influence and are influenced by bilingualism. The conference will consist of keynote addresses, solicited paper presentations, and poster presentations. The conference will take place in May 2018, and will be hosted by the Children's Learning Institute at The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas.