Here's a report on how things stand with HoLLTnet near the beginning of its 4th year (4th February 2018): 
 
The AILA Research Network (ReN) on History of Language Learning and Teaching ('HoLLTnet' for short) was originally approved as a research network of AILA in January 2015. HoLLTnet is dedicated to promoting and disseminating historical research into the following domains:

• how languages have been taught and learned;
• which languages have been taught and learned, and why;
• the sociology of language learning and teaching: who taught and learned in the past;
• what has been taught and learned;
• the history of how language learning and teaching have been theorized.

 
Our 2015–17 activities culminated in the organisation of a one-day symposium at the 17th AILA Congress in Rio de Janeiro in August 2017. Our symposium, on 'Innovation in historical perspective', featured 14 papers in all, the most of any ReN symposium, and included consideration of the history of language learning, teaching and assessment in Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, the USA and global contexts. We will soon be putting in a proposal for publication of these papers. Details of this and our other events are elsewhere on the HoLLTnet website.

We have sought and gained approval for renewal of the Research Network for a further term of three years (2018–2020) and are now looking forward to our next event – a two-day international meeting on 'Bi/Multilingualism and the History of Language Learning and Teaching', 6–7 July 2018, at the University of Reading, UK. Please join us for this meeting if you can. The Call for Papers deadline is 23 February 2018. In the meantime, you might be interested in participating in a HoLLTnet-supported event in Siena, Italy, on 12-13 April 2018 (Call for Papers deadline: 15 February 2018): Maestri di lingue tra metà Cinquecento e metà Seicento (there will be a strand for papers on other periods).
 
In 2018 we also look forward to the publication of a set of three volumes by Legenda (Oxford) which has been edited by Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith, on The History of Language Learning and Teaching. These volumes feature papers first presented by many HoLLTnet members at the conference in 2014 in Nottingham where the idea of HoLLTnet was first mooted. Papers from a previous meeting, at the University of Warwick, on 'Histories of language learning and teaching in Europe', have just been published in Open Access form. 

Our ‘global’ network within AILA continues to be encouraged and supported by representatives of existing country- or language-based associations in this field, including:

• SIHFLES (Société internationale pour l'histoire du français langue étrangère ou seconde)
• APHELLE (Associação Portuguesa para a História do Ensino das Línguas e Literaturas Extranjeras)
• CIRSIL (Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca sulla Storia degli Insegnamenti Linguistici)
• HSS (The Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas)
• HISELT (Society for Historical Studies of English Learning and Teaching in Japan)
• HELB (História do Ensino de Línguas no Bresil)
• Matthias-Kramer-Gesellschaft für die Erforschung der Geschichte des Fremdsprachenerwerbs und der Mehrsprachigkeit
• PHG (Peeter Heynsgenootschap)
• SEHEL (Sociedad Española para la Historia de las Enseñanzas Lingüísticas)

 
Those interested can join our email discussion list (300+ members) and Facebook group for early career researchers (200+ members) via http://www.hollt.net/join.

Our principal aims for the period 2018–2020 (as stated in our recently approved application for renewal to AILA) are to: 

• identify research which has already been done worldwide and disseminate information about this;
• disseminate findings of new historical research as it is carried out;
• promote research in the area of History of Language Learning and Teaching – particularly by supporting new scholars in this field;
• investigate potential for new kinds of cross-disciplinary applied linguistic research, for example via links with cultural studies, history of ideas, social and economic history, as well as the better-established, contiguous fields of History of Linguistics and History of Education;
• create opportunities for research on similar aspects or periods across geographical regions;
• seek research funding opportunities for development of the network and for international research collaborations;
• promote discussion and development of appropriate research methodologies in this area of applied linguistics.

During 2018–20, we intend to pursue these aims by means of some or all of the following activities:

• development of our existing website;             
• establishment of a committee with international representation;
• construction of a freely accessible online bibliography of pertinent publications;
• building up our electronic distribution list;
• developing our Facebook page, specifically targeted at and encouraging sharing of concerns and networking among PhD students and early career researchers;
• hold an annual meeting;
• editing and publication of papers from the ReN symposium at the AILA 2017 Congress.

If you are willing to help, in particular with website development, development of a bibliography or other activities, online or otherwise, please get in touch, and please do contact us at any time if you have comments or further suggestions. 

Finally, we would like to pay tribute to the contributions of founder co-convenors Nicola McLelland and Friederike Klippel in helping to establish HoLLTnet during its first three years. Thank you, Nicola and Friederike!
 
Richard Smith and Giovanni Iamartino (HoLLTnet co-convenors, 2018–2020)
 
 

The HoLLTnet Symposium at the AILA Congress in Rio de Janeiro was successfully held on July 25. As planned, after a brief introduction by the two of us as HoLLT.net co-convenors and a few welcoming words from Francisco Gomes de Matos, the well-known Brazilian applied linguist (you can read the poem he penned for the occasion at the foot of this blog post), the different speakers regularly followed one another: 13 papers were read (only one had unfortunately to be cancelled). The audience – varying between 25 and 40 people during the different sessions – appreciated the variety of topics and methodological approaches, as evidenced by the lively discussions following the presentations. Our impression was that, despite the various languages and periods involved, all the speakers shared the idea that viewing foreign language learning and teaching through a historical lens could and did provide both interesting data per se and suggestions for present-day methodology and critical thinking on foreign language learning and teaching.
 
A key moment in the day was the mid-afternoon Research Network business meeting.

Everybody agreed on the idea of extending our network for another three years, which means that a new application to AILA will have to be submitted by October, and that hopefully we will all meet in the Netherlands (Groningen) in August 2020. It would be great, however, if we also met before that: we discussed the possibility of planning one or two workshops in 2018 and/or 2019, in order to strengthen our ties and possibly widen our group. This is also related to a proposal emailed to us, just a few days before the Rio congress, by Rachel Mairs, who would be ready to host us in Reading for a HoLLT  workshop. Also, Mariarosaria Gianninoto said she might consider organizing a workshop in Grenoble. Further proposals, and suggestions for topics welcome!

Our group also commented on other emails we had received before the congress. It would be a good idea to have a blog as an addition to our HoLLT website (we have taken this to heart, and this post inaugurates the new HoLLT.net blog!. If anybody would like to write a guest post at any time, please contact us!), and also an online bibliography: can one of us – or perhaps one of our PhD students – volunteer to set the ball rolling?

Though desirable, it is likely to be difficult to seek public or private funding for our activities: thanks to Richard and, particularly, Barry O'Sullivan, our Symposium was part-sponsored by British Council Assessment Research & Development, and we are very  grateful for that. But what about the future?

Finally, the possibility of making HoLLT.net into a more official, transnational organization, i.e. a formally constituted learned society, was considered but the group's general attitude to this was that, for now, we should concentrate on building the network as a relatively informal 'umbrella association' in its current form.
 
Giovanni Iamartino (Milan) and Richard Smith (Warwick)