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What you need to know about the 2020 AAAL Conference

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Way back in 1978, AAAL began meeting jointly with the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). They continued sharing an annual conference until 1990, when AAAL grew large enough to convene its own conference. This is the 30th anniversary! AAAL is an affiliate of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA). In recent years, AAAL’s conference schedule has coordinated with TESOL’s international conference as well as smaller organizations - all hosted in the same city. Locations usually rotate between the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast of the United States (https://www.aaal.org/history-and-future-dates).


The 2020 AAAL conference will be held March 27-31 at the Sheraton Downtown in Denver, Colorado. Denver last hosted in 2009 (https://assets.noviams.com/novi-file-uploads/aaal/PDFs/AAAL_Preliminary_SOE_updated_11_13_19.pdf). The theme of this year’s conference is 20/20: Looking Back and Moving Ahead. Diverse plenary sessions will address bilingualism, second language acquisition, and indigenous languages (https://www.aaal.org/2020-plenary). Conference Connections matches established scholars with students for introductions and mentoring (https://www.aaal.org/conference-connections).


This year, the AAAL conference is making a concerted effort to go green. Programs will be distributed in a digital format. The online, searchable schedule allows you to plan ahead so you don’t miss sessions (https://aaal.confex.com/aaal/2020/meetingapp.cgi). Attendees should feel free to ask ahead of time about accommodations such as ASL interpreters, a lactation/family room, dietary exceptions, or cooperative childcare (https://www.aaal.org/accommodation-request-ada, https://www.aaal.org/family-resources). Don’t forget to do a little shopping, show off your AAAL pride, and contribute to the Fund for the Future of Applied Linguistics (FFAL) which supports graduate students (https://teespring.com/stores/aaalgrads).


Keep an eye out for upcoming blog posts with information about conference orientation, workshops, special events, meetings for interest groups, and suggestions for sightseeing and dining in Denver. For more information, please visit the conference website: https://www.aaal.org/denver-save-the-date.

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