USQ Symposium to Discuss Social Connectedness in our Society

The Language and Culture Symposium will be held at USQ Toowoomba on Wednesday 22 September.

The Language and Culture Symposium will seek  to bridge the language divide for immigrants to Australia

Over 60 delegates will attend the symposium where the issues surrounding social connectedness in our diverse landscape will be explored.

The Faculty of Education and USQ Office of Social Justice are hosting the event, and over 30 speakers will discuss their research on the role of language and culture of our people as local and global citizens.

Dr Ann Dashwood, Symposium Convenor and Lecturer in Applied Linguistics/Teaching English as a Second Language, believes that this event is important to ongoing research in the field.

“There are challenges and tensions at this time in our history - tensions that both connect and divide endeavours across the social landscape,” Dr Dashwood said.

“As 2010 is a designated year of research at USQ, this symposium brings together some of the diversity in qualitative research that is being conducted locally and in wider regional Australia.”

The leading speakers for the conference include Professor Anthony J. Liddicoat from University of South Australia; Professor Robin McTaggart from James Cook University; and Associate Professor Lynda Yates from Macquarie University.

Professor Peter Goodall, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Justice) at USQ, believes that language competence is one of the most valuable forms of social and cultural capital.

“Migrants from non English-speaking backgrounds who come to Australia are in urgent need of skilled, committed and pedagogically-sound help with their English,” Professor Goodall said.

“Without such help, a whole generation of Australian society will be denied opportunities, not just opportunities for individual betterment but opportunities for making the most of their citizenship and contribution to our nation.”

The Language and Culture Symposium commences at 8:30am on 22 September in the Allison Dickson Lecture Theatre, USQ.

For more information please visit Languages and Culture Symposium home page.
Contact Details:
Sam Tickell, USQ Media , +61 7 4631 2559