Connect Malaysia (Connect’M) is an international and interdisciplinary conference that aims to bridge the gap between the multiple disciplines of linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and education by connecting researchers from Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand in Malaysia, a multilingual and multicultural society.

Following the success of the 2^nd Connect’M conference held at the University of Reading Malaysia with the theme ‘Language & Literacy in Multilingual Societies’, the 3^rd Connect’M 2021 has the theme:

‘Bilingualism/Multilingualism across the lifespan’

Connect’M 2021 will comprise three days of research presentations and thematic roundtables and knowledge transfer workshops from 17 to 19 August 2021, and it will be conducted fully online via Zoom. The conference is jointly organised by the University of Nottingham Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Registration for the conference can be made via the official  conference website, https://connectm3.wixsite.com/website. The fee for academics and non-students is RM50, while the fee for students is RM20.

Further details and links to social media pages will be revealed later in time.

Date and location

17 to 19 August 2021 online via Zoom.

Themes

1. Language assessment focuses on language assessment for children growing up in multilingual societies, how to develop language assessments for multilingual populations across the lifespan, and will also focus on the impact of bilingualism/multilingualism on cognitive function.
2. Reading and writing across the lifespan focuses on multilingualism in and outside of the classroom, and will address issues of individual variability in bilinguals/multilinguals across the lifespan.
3. Language acquisition and attrition focuses on how language develops in children and adults growing up/living in multilingual societies, how they maintain the languages they speak, under which conditions we see effects of language attrition, and how language declines as a result of a stroke or dementia. It will also include talks on methods for the documentation of indigenous languages.

Call for abstract submission

We welcome submissions for papers and posters on research surrounding ‘Bilingualism/Multilingualism across the lifespan’, including but not limited to:

• The development of language and/or literacy in multilingual children/adults and factors that lead to individual variability.
• Impact of language background on Executive Function.
• Factors that contribute to literacy attainment, including cognitive factors (e.g. phonological awareness), environmental factors (e.g. home language and literacy environment), and pedagogical factors (e.g. methods of literacy instruction).
• Pedagogies in the multilingual classroom, including the use of home languages and the use of translanguaging in the classroom.
• Language assessment for multilingual populations, including indigenous children/adults.
• Language Attrition in older adults and/or in indigenous languages.
• Language Assessments for Aphasia and/or Dementia in mulitlingual adults.

Abstract submission deadline: 31^st May 2021

Submit your abstract via Easy Chair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=connectm32021

Keynote speakers

1. Prof Arpita Bose, University of Reading
2. Dr Julia Lee Ai Cheng, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
3. Prof Susan Rickard Liow & Dr Lee Lay Choo, National University of Singapore

Roundtables

1. Best practice tips for online data collection, how research has been affected by COVID-19
2. Development of bi/multilingual assessment tools
3. Language attrition in clinical populations (e.g. aphasia and dementia)

Knowledge transfer workshops

1. Effective grant proposal writing
2. Research methods: Qualitative/corpus linguistics
3. Research methods: Open science
4. Research methods: Online data collection

Poster sessions

Poster sessions will be conducted via Open Science Framework platform.

Organising committee

• Dr Jess Price, University of Nottingham Malaysia
• Dr Siti Haman, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
• Dr Rachel Pye, University of Reading Malaysia
• Dr Daisy Powell, University of Reading