DISTILS-01: Discoveries and Insights in Skills Training in Intergenerational Language Sustainability Conference Edmonton, Canada, May 4-8, 2026 |
| Conference website | http://instils.org/distils |
| Submission deadline | January 16, 2026 |
Discoveries and Insights in Skills Training in Intergenerational Language Sustainability Conference
DISTILS-01
Theme: Conceptions of Intergenerational Language Sustainability Skills Training: Best Practices and Innovations
Date:4 - 8 May, 2026
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada & Online
About DISTILS
INSTILS – the International Network for Skills Training in Intergenerational Language Sustainability – invites you to submit abstracts to its inaugural conference on Discoveries and Insights in Skills Training in Intergenerational Language Sustainability (DISTILS-01).
A key element of intergenerational language sustainability is building capacity within communities to define and meet their own language goals. To support these aspirations, numerous programs and initiatives (including CoLang, ELDP, AILDI, NILI, CILLDI, etc.) have been developed around the world to offer skills training and support to communities in various areas, including language documentation, pedagogical methods, materials development, and community language planning, among others.
Despite this, the language revitalization literature has paid comparatively little attention to critically analyzing these skills or the ways in which they are taught. As a result, the very notion of an ILS skill remains undertheorized, and a range of essential questions remain unanswered, including:
- What are the ILS skills that communities actually need? How might these differ between communities, and across the globe?
- How can these skills be identified, categorized, and prioritized?
- What methods are most effective for providing this skills training in a diverse range of learning environments?
- How can that knowledge be used to strengthen existing ILS skills-training programs, and support the development of new ones?
This conference seeks to advance the theorization of ILS skills and to lay a foundation for the further exploration of these questions.
DISTILS-01 welcomes presentations on this year's theme of “Conceptions of Intergenerational Language Sustainability Skills Training: Best Practices and Innovations”, especially those reporting on research around the skills needed for the maintenance, revitalization and revival of minoritized languages, including studies on the methods for building ILS capacity within communities.
Presenters will be allotted a 30 minute time slot, 20 minutes for their presentation and 10 minutes for questions.
Abstract Guidelines
Abstracts should be no more than 500 words (excluding references). Submissions must be anonymous. Each author may submit a maximum of two (2) abstracts, with no more than one (1) being single-authored. Abstracts should be in English.