New year (2018) HoLLTnet report

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)
 
 

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