Organised by Charles University in collaboration with the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (
The theme of the conference is “English in business and commerce” with a special focus on the Central European region and its languages, though other regions in Europe and elsewhere in the world can be also represented. The aim of the conference is to analyze not only the position of English (and other languages) as declared in documents of various organizations (for example, businesses), that is, language policy, but also everyday linguistic practices as observed in business contexts. The approach of the papers should be primarily grounded in sociolinguistics and/or the sociology of language – papers dealing exclusively with the inner (textual) structure of business genres or which take a linguodidactic approach will not be accepted.
We invite papers on all topics relating to the theme. This may include but is not limited to:
• Ideologies of English (and other languages) in business and commerce
• Language management and policy in multinational companies and small and medium-sized enterprises
• Everyday interactions in business contexts
• Multilingualism as practiced in companies and its changing constellations
• Specific functions of various languages used in business contexts
• National foreign language teaching policies and employment markets
• Relationships between the language industry and companies in selected countries and regions
• The commodification of English in selected economic spheres
• English as a lingua franca in business contexts
• English in competition with other lingua francas, such as German and Russian
• English in competition with local languages
• The management of the English-language presence in business contexts in local language interactions
• English as a language learned later in life for employment purposes
• English in European-Asian economic collaboration
Keynote speakers
Nkonko M. Kamwangamalu (Howard University, Washington, DC)
Rebecca Piekkari (Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki)
Jo Angouri (University of the West of England, Bristol)
Local organisers
Tamah Sherman (Charles University, Institute of General Linguistics)
Jiří Nekvapil (Charles University, Institute of General Linguistics)
Petr Kaderka (Czech Language Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic)
Important Dates
Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 December 2013
Acceptance decision: 15 January 2013
Registration: 1-28 February 2014
Submission Guidelines
Please send an anonymous abstract 500 words or less (including references) as an attachment on any of the topics listed above to the conference email address: pragueeie@gmail.com (or englishineurope@sheffield.ac.uk). In your e-mail, include the title of your paper, the name and contact details of the author(s).
Student bursaries (for postgraduate and PhD students)
There will be
three student bursaries for the Prague 2014 conference for students who have been accepted to present their work at the conference. These bursaries became possible after a silent book auction we held at our conference in Thessaloniki. Many thanks to our sponsors, Mouton de Gruyter and Peter Lang AG for their kind offers. More information regarding the student bursaries will be announced on our
website soon.
