NEWS:

• The Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand (ALANZ) is the New Zealand affiliate of AILA (The International Association of Applied Linguistics). Membership of the association provides access to a network of individuals interested and active in applied linguistics research; occasional research seminars are held and an annual research symposium. ALANZ also provides an outlet for publications in applied linguistics through the journal New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics. Areas of research which are of interest to ALANZ members include foreign and second language education, Maori language, cross-cultural pragmatics, speech and language disorders, language planning, and community languages.

NEWS:

19th ALANZ  Symposium

• The 19th ALANZ  Symposium Languages and Literacies in the 21st Century: Language Education at the Crossroads will be held on 29 November 2014 at  the AUT City Campus in the Sir Paul Reeves Building (WG) . The new building is  something AUT is very proud of so for those of you who are interested here’s a short video clip of what you can expect!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtg3Y8kBV2w

• We’re planning to start at 9  but there will be  drinks and snacks after the presentations so please plan to stay a little later than 5.  The key note speakers have been confirmed and we’re very pleased to say that Professor Stephen May of the University of Auckland, Professor Cynthia White of Massey  and Dr Jonathan Newton of Victoria have all accepted our invitation.
• We’ll be putting  up more details about the symposium in the near future .

Thesis competition 2013

Winner: Michael Rodgers Victoria University

Three theses were submitted to the judges for  the 2013/2014 competition. We would like to congratulate  the participants on the very high standard of work evident in all three texts. They were all articulate and  interesting studies which  will make useful contributions to knowledge in the field of Applied Linguistics. However, the judges  felt one thesis stood out for the originality and value of its contribution:  Michael Rodgers’ English language learning through viewing television: An investigation of comprehension, incidental vocabulary acquisition, lexical coverage, attitudes and captions.

The two judges were Dr Deb Laurs of Victoria University and Associate Professor Pat Strauss of AUT. Interestingly, Deb’s new  book which she co-authored with Dr Susan Carter of Auckland University is about providing generic support for doctoral students. If you’re interested this link will provided more information:

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415662338/