6-8 May 2024  |  Bodø, Norway

RidEL 2024 is a cooperation between Norwegian and Canadian ELLiL project partners (Nord University and Bishop’s University), and invites proposals for papers and panels on language learning around the world (English languages and literatures). Proposals on the affordances of literary texts for the learning of other languages are also welcome if the research results are interesting for language learning in general. We invite papers on in-depth learning with different children’s literature text types (which might include picturebooks, young adult literature, film, graphic novels, chapter books, story apps, verse novels, documentaries, poetry, short stories, oral storytelling and drama) and discussing opportunities for creative and transformative response in the classroom or in teacher education.  

The theme of this conference is in-depth learning through deep reading of texts for the English-language primary and secondary classroom, as well as teacher education. By in-depth learning we mean an approach that aims to reconnect school learning with the world beyond, helping students to invest in their learning as they understand its relevance for their lives outside of school. In-depth learning involves the students as motivated participants, preparing for and confronting the challenges of today and of times ahead. The conference will discuss diversity and critical literacy with children’s literature, and interculturality as an active process. Deep reading of literary texts means transacting with and participating actively in the text, experiencing empathy and perspective-taking, while generating, for example, creative, multilingual, or artistic response. Deep reading encompasses cognitively demanding contemplative processes, such as inferencing, and negotiation of insights by talking around texts. Deep reading also entails reading critically, and potentially against the text.