The 14th World Congress of Applied Linguistics will be held July 24-29, 2005 in Madison, Wisconsin, with support from the National Science Foundation. This conference is the major scholarly meeting of applied linguists internationally, attracting leading scholars, researchers, and advanced students of applied linguistics from around the world. Known informally as AILA 2005, this conference is the 14th tri-annual meeting of AILA (l'association internationale de linguistique applique / International Association of Applied Linguistics). AILA is an international federation of 37 national or regional associations of applied linguistics, and the only truly international scholarly organization in this field. The objectives of AILA are to promote research and teaching in all fields of applied linguistics, to disseminate the results of this research, and to promote international and interdisciplinary cooperation in these fields. The discipline of Applied Linguistics involves principled approaches to language-related concerns, including language education, acquisition and loss, bilingualism, discourse analysis, forensic linguistics, literacy, rhetoric and stylistics, language for special purposes, psycholinguistics, second and foreign language pedagogy, language assessment, and language policy and planning.
AILA 2005 will contribute in distinctive ways to the enhancement and improvement of scientific and other principled inquiry in applied linguistics by providing the major international conference in this field in the years 2004 to 2006. The conference will be the leading forum for the exchange and dissemination of research findings and theoretical perspectives from around the world on a great range of related topics. In addition to the production of knowledge through papers, symposia, or posters at the conference itself, each of AILA's scientific commissions will hold meetings at AILA 2005, planning policies and projects directed at impacting their respective fields of inquiry in applied linguistics internationally. Broad benefits from AILA 2005 can be expected for society as improvements in such areas as language learning and teaching, language policies, bilingualism, communication systems, multi-media technologies, language assessment, interpreting services, literacy, and intergroup relations. The long-term impact of AILA 2005 will be assured through publication of scholarly papers presented at the conference in edited books, journal articles, and a website.
