Association for Language Awareness 2026 Conference - Heritages, Languages, Ecologies

The Association for Language Awareness (ALA) is an international organization established in 1994, which hosts biennial conferences around the world dedicated to Language Awareness. Language Awareness is defined as “explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception and sensitivity in language learning, language teaching and language use” and addresses a wide spectrum of fields, “exploring the benefits that can be derived from developing a good knowledge about language, a conscious understanding of how languages work, of how people learn them, and use them” (ALA 2025). 

In 2026, the conference will be held in Monterey, California at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), where the late Professor Leo van Lier, a founding member of ALA, had taught from 1986-2012.  The conference committee represents a consortium of volunteers from: Cal State Monterey Bay, MIIS, DLI, Pacific Grove Adult Education, Santa Clara University, UC Santa Cruz, and CSU Fresno among others.

Visit the Conference webpage hosted by Middlebury Institute.

Conference Proposals

The call for conference proposals opened July 1, 2025 and closed November 1, 2025.  Proposal authors were notified November 26, 2025 (U.S. PST 5:00 p.m.). We thank all of the applicants for the excellent quality of proposals. The conference registration site and related information for participants and exhibitors is available in the registration information link below. We ask that you use a gmail account for verification purposes.

Donate to the Conference

Please include Donation Code: ALAC1 with your donation.